Mozambique Mining: Vale plans to 20Mi tons of coal out per year by 2021

Vale Moçambique intends to achieve production of 20 million tons of coal annually by 2021, the financial director of Brazilian group Vale said on Thursday in Maputo.

The Vale group released the group’s production and sales report for the third quarter at the beginning of the month and reported that coal production in Mozambique in 2018 had been revised downwards from 15 million tons to 12 million tons.

The report said that this downward review is due to subsidiary Vale Moçambique reviewing processes and plans for the Moatize mine in Tete province in order to make 2018 “the year of stabilization.”

The group had announced in May that it forecast production of 15 million tons of coal, against the 16 million mark it had set previously, due to bad weather in the production zone.

Marcelo Tertuliano, chief financial officer of Vale Moçambique, said that the company will not only increase production but will also need “favourable market conditions” and a cost structure that guarantees its sustainability, according to local press reports.

The financial director of the Mozambican subsidiary added that US$6 billion had been invested in creating the conditions to start mining coal at the Moatize mine, in addition to US$2 billion in interest payments by 2021. (source: Macauhub)