Vitol speculated to take stake in CIC Energy

[miningmx.com] – VITOL, a commodity trading house, is speculated to be
taking a 9.1% stake in CIC Energy, a Toronto-listed firm which is digging for coal in
Botswana.

Citing an unnamed source at Vitol, Reuters said the aim of the transaction was to help
Vitol broaden its non-South African, African coal export tonnages. The company
recently won the rights to market 2 million tonnes/year of coal produced by the
Mozambican-based junior miner, Beacon Hill Resources.

“This is about Vitol securing access to large-scale exports in the future,” the source
told Reuters. CIC has three coal blocks in development, one for domestic coal and two
for export, the newswire said. “Vitol is trying to develop an upstream strategy to
support the Maputo terminal and to increase it,” the source said.

Vitol paid US$67.7M for a 35% stake in the Matola terminal in Mozambique. The
terminal is under concession to South Africa’s logistics company, Grindrod.