Vale Mozambique doubles coal production in just 10 months

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Vale Mozambique doubles coal production in just 10 months

12:04 CAT | 21 Nov 2017

Notícias

Nearly 10 million tons of coal were produced in the Vale mines in Moatize, Tete province from January to October, almost double the 2016 figure of 5.9 million tons.

The miner’s goal is to produce 13 million tonnes of thermal metallurgical coal by December, an increase of about 120 percent on last year’s results.

The figures were released by the Brazilian mining company in Moatize yesterday during a visit by journalists to the project, which has a holding area of 23,700 hectares.

Vale’s Rogério Sendela was confident of achieving the goal, explaining that the increase in production was due to the fact that the company has been operating a second processing plant since the end of 2016, and a railway line with capacity and operational safety levels far above the one it had been using since the beginning of operations has come online. The activation of a second mine has also contributed to the results.

The company was able to process 22 million tons of coal per year, against the 11 million installed capacity in each of the plants.

Similarly, with the Northern Logistics Corridor (CLN), which includes a railroad linking Moatize to Nacala port via Malawi, Vale no longer uses the “fragile” Sena line linking the coal region of Tete to Beira. CLN’s capacity is 18 million tons of cargo per year, compared to about 6,000 that the Sena line could support, according to data released by Vale.

Sendela said that despite having produced about 5.9 million tons of coal last year, export volumes were well above this number because of processed coal awaiting shipment to Beira.

Currently, five 120-wagon trains depart for Nacala daily, a journey of about 30 hours. Each train carries 7,560 tons of coal, which is then exported to India, Japan, Brazil and elsewhere.

Yesterday the company opened the doors of several units to the press, such as the first mine, which has been operating since 2011, the two processing plants and the coal loading zone.

Today is reserved for social projects, including a visit to Cateme, where 716 of the 1,365 families who lived in the Vale concession area were resettled. The company won the international public tender for mining in Moatize in 2004.

By José Chissano in Moatize

Source: Notícias