Riversdale plans to speed up Mozambique coal mineTue Mar 16,...

Riversdale plans to speed up Mozambique coal mine
Tue Mar 16, 2010 5:54pm GMT

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Sydney-listed Riversdale Mining expects to ramp up production of coal at the Benga coal mine in Mozambique much quicker than initially planned due to higher demand, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Andrew Love, deputy chairman at Riversdale, said the company was initially planning to have a run of mine of 5 million tonnes of coal per year starting in 2011, and was planning to increase that amount to 20 million tonnes by around 2016.

"We are getting a lot of people coming to us saying that there is a shortage of coking coal around the world ... we think that there is a possibility to bring (the timelines) forward," he told Reuters on the sidelines of an Africa power conference.

The company also plans to export thermal coal from the mine to feed power plants in the southern African region and beyond.

He said the company was still revising the timelines and quantities, and could not provide details yet, but said that India would be a major market for its coal because of the pace of its domestic demand.

Riversdale holds a 65 percent stake in the mine and India's Tata Steel owns the rest.

In an earlier presentation, Love said the company was also progressing well with its plan to build a coal-fired power plant next to the plant.

"We are looking at concluding commissioning and construction by late 2013 or early 2014," he said.

The power plant, estimated to cost up to $1.3 billion, is expected to intially produce 500 MW, to be later expanded to 2,000 MW, depending on the availability of a north-south transmission line that would help trading power in the region.

Love said the company was in advanced talks with a large industrial customer for parts of the power in South Africa.

He said the company was granted permission to export up to 225 MW of the power for now. The rest would be used to run the mine and to supply Mozambique.

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