[miningmx.com] — MOZAMBIQUE’S ports and railways company CFM expects to complete a much-delayed refurbishment of the Sena rail line linking the Beira port with coal mines in the Tete province by early 2013, its chairman Rosario Mualeia said on Tuesday.
CFM was asked to complete the upgrade of the line after the government cancelled a contract it had with India’s Rites and Ircon (RICON) when the consortium had failed to deliver the project despite many delays.
The line was initially scheduled for completion in September 2009 to carry coal from Tete where the likes of Vale and Rio Tinto are busy developing mines which will serve Mozambique and exports.
“Some 95% of traffic of goods is done by road because the railway is in such a bad condition,” Mualeia told Reuters on the sidelines of a Southern African Railway Association conference.
“We still need to upgrade the line, the track, the signalling system and also rehabilitate the Machipanda line to Zimbabwe … about $80m will be needed to complete all the work.”
After the upgrade is completed, the line will be able to carry around 6 million tonnes of coal per year. Mualeia said a further upgrade was planned to increase capacity on the line to around 19 million tonnes.
The second phase of the line upgrade will coincide with the building of a new coal terminal at Beira with a similar capacity, which should be completed by 2015.
Brazil’s Vale began first exports from its Moatize coal mine in September and already used the Sena line to move its coal to Beira, but Mualeia said the shipment was transported at much slower speed than was required to move larger volumes.
