Concessionaires invested $18.4B in Mozambican hydrocarbons over five years
(in file CoM)
Miner Vale’s lower coking coal production in the third quarter and a part-idling at its Moatize mine this month, along with an ongoing outage at Australia’s North Goonyella, is tightening seaborne mid-vol and low-vol coking coal supplies for Q4 trade.
Operations at Brazilian miner Vale’s Moatize mine in Mozambique were suspended early last week, with reports of local villagers occupying part of the site.
“Vale clarifies that it has halted one third of its operations in only one of the four sections of the Moatize mine, in Mozambique, with low impact on its production,” the company said in an email dated Friday.
“The company holds an open dialogue with the communities about the issues they presented,” Vale added in response to whether the closure was related to a local protest.
Vale did not comment on whether the mine planned to restart following last week’s national election.
The suspension at the mine had been expected, with the election last week, a source told Platts last week.
Vale said Monday third-quarter met coal production and sales from its flagship Moatize mine in Mozambique fell as the proportion of thermal coal in the operation rose.
Vale reported met coal production of 1.56 million mt in Q3, 15.8% lower than Q3 2017 and sales fell 13.8% to 1.6 million mt.
The part suspension at Moatize has come as US miner Peabody Energy declared force majeure on supplies of its Premium Mid Vol North Goonyella coking coal from Queensland. North Goonyella mine had an underground fire, and gas levels are a concern.
Vale’s coking coal includes Moatize Low Vol with 73% CSR, 20.5% VM, 10% ash and 230 dial division per minute, and Chipanga coking coal with 71% CSR, 23.8% VM, 10.5% ash and 1,000 dial division per minute.
In 2017, Vale produced 11.2 million mt of coal, of which 60% was coking coal and 40% thermal coal.
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