The company is planning to increase capacity at the mine to 2.8 million tonnes per annum by the end of this year, and will focus on mining the high value hard coking coal.
According to the company’s chairman, Justin Farr-Jones, by the end of the year the mine will have the annual capacity to produce 500,000 tonnes of coking coal for export to India and another 500,000 tonnes of thermal coal for sale to customers locally and regionally.
Farr-Jones explained that the company has a quota that will enable it to transport half a million tonnes of coal per year along the Sena rail line to the port at Beira.
To move the coal Beacon Hill has invested 21 million US dollars in new rolling stock. It has ordered from South Africa five locomotives from Grindrod and 90 wagons from Transnet. These are due to arrive in the third quarter of this year.
In an interview with AIM, Farr-Jones said that the company may transport some coal by truck to Beira or it may choose to stockpile the coal until the rail link is running.
He stressed that the company is committed to using the Sena line to meet its needs, explaining that “we have an eight per cent allocation on the Sena line and it is expected that the line’s capacity will double from 6.5 million tonnes to approximately 13 million tonnes per annum over the next few years, ultimately reaching a maximum capacity of about 20 million tonnes per annum”.
On Wednesday in Maputo Minas Moatize entered into a 25 year mining contract with the Mozambican government. The contract was signed by Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Esperanca Bias, and the Chief Executive Officer of Minas Moatize, Rowan Karstel.
Under the agreement the Mozambican government has taken a five per cent share in Minas Moatize and has the option to purchase another ten per cent stake at market prices.
Minas Moatize employs 225 workers of whom about 210 are Mozambican.
Post published in: Africa News