Mozambique Mining: Vale Moatize Coal mine production up in 2016

Vale Moçambique, a subsidiary of Brazilian group Vale, extracted 5.5 million tonnes of coal from its mine in Moatize, in Mozambique’s Tete province, a 10.7% increase over the 4.96 million tonnes recorded in 2015, the group said in a statement.

The increase in production was due, according to the group’s fourth quarter and 2016 production report, to the improvement recorded at the Moatize I project and the beginning of a new project called Moatize II.

Production in the fourth quarter of 2016, of 1.6 million tonnes, was down by 9.7% year on year due to “restrictions in the supply of explosives used in the dismantling of the mine.”

Although there has been an increase in production year on year, with 3.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal and 2.0 million tonnes of thermal coal, the amount reached was just over half of the 10 million-tonne target announced in 2015.

The amount of coal transported on the Sena/Beira and Nacala railway corridors reached 8.8 million tonnes in 2016, or 113%more than the 4.1 million tonnes carried in 2015.

Coal carried in 2016 totalled 8.7 million tonnes, 36% more than the 3.7 million tonnes carried in 2015, as a result of improvements in the Nacala Corridor.

“In December 2016, our operations in Mozambique reached a record high, with a transported amount of 1.097 million tonnes and amount shipped of 1.071 million tonnes,” the 2016 report said. (source: Vale, Macauhub)