WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2009-05-18 Time: 23:00:03 Posted By: Jan
Tete – The Mozambican government and the Australian company Riversdale Mining on Friday signed the mining contract under which Riversdale will develop an open cast coal mine at Benga, in Moatize district, in the western province of Tete.
At the ceremony, held at the Riversdale training centre in Tete city, the Minster of Mineral Resources, Esperanca Bias, also delivered the Benga Mining Concession Title to the Riversdale Managing Director Steve Mallyon. The government approved the concession and the contract at the start of this month.
Mallyon told reporters that Riverdale has so far invested 60 million US dollars in preparatory work. But the full investment in the mine is expected to reach 800 million dollars.
He expected production to begin in late 2010. The forecast is for 20 million tonnes a year “run of the mine”. But that is the raw mined material, prior to sorting or treatment of any sort, and by no means all of it can be used. Mallyon estimated that 30 per cent would be high quality coking coal, 30 per cent thermal coal, and the remaining 40 per cent waste.
He reassured reporters that slag heaps would not dot the Tete landscape, since the company would rehabilitate as it advanced. He expected mining to continue at Benga for at least 25, and maybe for 40 years. There was also a possibility that the company could expand downwards, and open an underground mine, in addition to the open cast operation.
Mallyon told the signing ceremony “At Benga we are committed to building value for our shareholders in a way that impacts positively on the Tete community”.
He said that the mine would create 1,500 permanent direct jobs, and a further 4,500 indirect jobs, “with a huge impact on the local economy”.
“It is the company’s wish to recruit labour locally”, he said, “and to ensure sustainable training, so that there are capable Mozambicans working on the project for many years to come”.
He predicted that the Benga project “will put Tete on the map as a region of global significance, as a supplier of hard coking coal and thermal coal to markets around the world”. He added that the coal will be exported to India (the Indian company Tata Steel is a strategic partner of Riversdale), Brazil, Europe and northern Asia.
Mallyon promised that Riversdale will take its social responsibilities to local communities seriously, and pledged “whole-hearted support for achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals”. Riversdale had already set HIV and malaria prevention programmes into motion, and was supporting local schools and health units.
In addition to Benga, Riversdale has 22 mining exploration licences in other parts of Tete province, where further major coal discoveries are thought likely. Mallyon said the company has given an undertaking to explore thoroughly these possibilities.
The major problem for companies operating in the Moatize coal basin is that it is about 600 kilometres from the sea. The Sena rail line from Moatize to the port of Beira, destroyed by the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels during the war of destabilisation, is being rebuilt. By November trains should be able to run along the whole length of the line.
But current estimates are that at maximum capacity, the Sena line can only carry eight million tonnes of coal a year. Between them, Riversdale and the Brazilian mining giant Vale, which holds an adjacent mining concession, will be producing considerably more than that amount of coal for export. The quantity of coal exports could rise still further as other companies (such as Coal India) obtain concessions, and if Riversdale opens other mines.
Mallyon said several alternatives to the Sena line are under consideration. These include floating the coal on barges down the Zambezi river, and using the northern port of Nacala (which would imply building a new railway across southern Malawi). He thought it would also be possible to upgrade the Sena line (improved communications systems or doubling the track should allow more trains to use the line).
Riversdale also has plans to use much of the thermal coal in a power station to be built at Benga. The mining licence, however, does not commit the company to this. Bias said the matter is still under study
She noted that Vale has also proposed to build a coal-fired power station, and doubted that it was appropriate for every company that opened a coal mine to have its own power station. It might be more economically rational to sell the coal to a single power station.
Asked about fiscal benefits for Riversdale, Bias said the company would be paying all the normal taxes envisaged under Mozambican fiscal legislation – corporation and income tax at the normal rates, and a three per cent production tax.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 15 May 2009
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200905180772.html?viewall=1