[miningmx.com] – ANGLO American has joined rivals Vale and Rio Tinto
in the rush to exploit Mozambique’s rich coking coal reserves, confirming today it
had offered A$540m (US$555m) for the Talbot Estate 58.9% stake in the Revuboe
1.4 billion tonne coking coal mining prospect.
The UK-listed miner joins minority shareholders Nippon Steel Corporation (33.3%)
and Koreans Posco (7.8%) in the venture that was originally owned by mining
tycoon, Ken Talbot. Talbot was killed in a plane crash in central Africa in 2010.
“Revuboe is located in the most attractive area of Mozambique’s Moatize coal basin
and has a number of infrastructural development options,” said Anglo American
CEO, Cynthia Carroll. Anglo reports its interim results ended-June on Friday (27
July).
Anglo was connected with the purchase in December when it was speculated it would
pay $630m for the asset. However, the deal was held up, which some analysts put
down to uncertainty regarding certain fiscal changes that the Mozambican
government was considering at the time.
The Revuboe project has a reported JORC resource of 1.4Bt of hard coking coal and
thermal coal suitable for open cut mining, Anglo American said in a statement this
morning. There was potential to export six million tonnes (Mt) to 9Mt on a 100%
basis, Anglo said.
“The acquisition of a majority interest in Revuboe is in line with our strategic
commitment to grow our global metallurgical coal business to supply our customers
from each of the key metallurgical coal supply regions of Australia, Canada and
Mozambique,” Carroll said.
The transaction is due to be completed in the third quarter of 2012.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The Revuboe property is lodged between Rio Tinto’s tenements. These include the
Benga mine bought from Riversdale Mining for $4bn in 2010 and Vale’s Moatize
project, where some $5bn is being spent on mine and infrastructure.
It’s the development of infrastructure that is Mozambique’s biggest challenge.
Already, Rio Tinto CEO, Tom Albanese, said his group was “… continuing to work
with the government of Mozambique to secure the development of comprehensive
infrastructure for efficient transport of coal from mine to port”.
The main rail route from Revuboe is the Sena line; a development that has been
held up for more than 18 months, but which is slated to see some 6Mt of capacity by
the year-end. However, it’s likely a fair portion of this capacity has already been
concessioned to Rio Tinto and a junior miner, Beacon Hill Resources. There are
plans to take Sena to 20Mtpa in time.
The other rail development planned in the vicinity of Revuboe is the Moatize to
Nacala route being built by Vale. Initially a 12Mtpa to 18Mtpa route, the line is also
seeing the participation of Government investment that could take it up to 30Mtpa,
or even 40Mtpa, in time.
Helpfully for Anglo, the Mozambican government is keen to see an open-access
approach to its infrastructure so that the existing major mining investments in the
country won’t shut off new entrants.
Ultimately, Mozambique plans to develop infrastructure capable of handling 100Mtpa
to 120Mtpa of coal production, according to comments attributed to Rosario Mualela,
Chairman of Mozambique’s transport operator, CFM, earlier this month.
He said that three corridors would be established to handle the quantum increase in
coal output. “We are planning to export 100Mtpa to 120Mtpa through three
corridors. Of this, 20Mtpa will come through the Sena rail line out of the port of
Beira, 60Mtpa is proposed to be carried on an inland rail route development by
mining firm ENRC, and another 30Mtpa to 40Mtpa will be carried by Brazilian mining
firm Vale’s railway, which will cross through Malawi to the port of Nacala’.
