The agreement signed in 2014 for the Japanese group Mitsui & Co. to enter the coal business of the Brazilian group Vale in Mozambique should be concluded this coming September, said the head of the mining group, Murilo Ferreira.
The process is “in a very advanced stage”, lacking only approval by the government of Malawi, “something that is in the final phase of negotiation” after last month’s approval by the Mozambican government, Ferreira said last Thursday, cited by the Brazilian newspaper Valor Económico.
The Mitsui & Co. group agreed in 2014 to pay US$763 million for stakes in Vale’s projects in Mozambique: the Moatize coal mine and the railway line and port of Nacala. That line begins at Moatize in Tete province, enters Malawi and then crosses back into Mozambique to end at Nacala.
“That approval (by the government of Malawi) is essential to finance the project, at a time when discussions with banks have been completed” and the “document review phase” is now under way, the Vale group president specified.
Coal extraction in Moatize, Tete province, has represented for the Vale group losses of US$500 million per year, amounting to US$112 million in the first quarter and US$100 million in the second quarter of 2016.
Source: Macauhub
