Mozambique Mining: Indian Sol Mineração to start coal exploration by 2019

Sol Mineração Moçambique, a subsidiary of India’s Sunflag group, plans to start coal mining in the central Tete province in 2019, according to Radio Moçambique.

The radio station added that the company will operate in the Mutarara district, where it has a concession of 4,000 hectares, and the coal to be extracted will be exported to the Indian market.

The Mutarara district administration also told Radio Moçambique that the concession granted to the company contains gold, in addition to coal, which is currently being mined by artisanal miners from Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In August 2014, the then Minister of Mineral Resources Esperança Bias announced that Indian group Sunflag intended to invest US$222 million in the Mutarara coal mine.

At the signing of the contract, the minister said the concession granted to the Indian group was valid for 25 years and “is a testament to the confidence foreign investors have in the economic and business potential of Mozambique.”

Ravibhusan Bhardwej, managing director of Sol Mineração Moçambique, said feasibility studies revealed the presence of 115.46 million tons of coal, of which only 44.9 million tons could be sold, including 17.3 million tons of coking coal and 27.6 million tons of thermal coal.

The group’s main production unit is Sunflag Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. which has a steelworks in Bhandara, Maharashtra, where it produces 360,000 tons of high quality special steels annually. (macauhub)