Riversdale moves ahead with plans for second Mozambique mine.
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) ? Detailed mine planning for ASX-listed Riversdale Mining?s second coal operation in Mozambique, the Zambeze project, would start after the first quarter of this year.
The Australia-based miner was currently assessing the 1,7-billion ton indicated coal resource in preparation for the start of mine planning, noting that it had already held a number of workshops to determine the most effective approach to develop the mine.
Workshops of this nature, which included discussions on the issues involved with large-scale mining in Mozambique?s Moatize Basin and appropriate coal beneficiation technology, would continue throughout the first quarter of the year, Riversdale said in a statement to shareholders on Friday.
The Zambeze project is situated adjacent to the miner?s Benga coal project, where stage-one production is expected to start in early 2011. The projects shared a similar geological structure.
The company has completed planning for an extensive drilling programme over the 25-km2 project area, while assessments from a first round of drilling has indicated that the coal quality is comparable to the hard-coking and thermal coal found at the Benga project.
Riversdale noted that its tenure over the EPL946L licence, known as the Zambeze project, had been renewed by the country?s Mineral Resources Ministry until May 2013.
Further, it was expecting a ministerial decision on an application for a surface development moratorium to be placed on a portion of the licence to be made during this quarter.
The application was lodged to enable the coal-miner to protect the underlying coal resources from potential property development, the company stated.
COAL BARGING
Meanwhile, Riversdale reported that environmental consultants Environmental Resource Management (ERM) has completed the first phase of an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) in relation to its plans to transport coal by barge along the Zambezi river.
The results of phase one had been positive, with ERM expected to start work on the second phase of the ESIA in early February.
Phase two would include detailed water and riverbed sampling at a number of locations along the river, as well as the finalisation of community and social impacts, Riversdale stated.
The company announced last year that it had completed a series of studies to confirm the viability of large-scale barging of coal to an offshore floating transloading vessel and that it had found no physical impediments to coal barging on the river. Edited by: Mariaan Webb
RIV Price at posting:
$7.38 Sentiment: ST Buy Disclosure: Held
