Riversdale, Tata Approve $270 Million Mozambique Mine

Date: 29-10-2009

Australia’s Riversdale Mining Ltd. and Tata Steel Ltd., India’s biggest producer of the metal, approved development of a $270 million coal mine in Mozambique with first production scheduled for next year. The first stage of the Benga project will produce an estimated 1.7 million metric tons of coking coal and 300,000 tons of thermal coal for export, Sydney-based Riversdale said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange. Construction will start by the end of this year, it said.

The venture is considering a second stage expansion to boost production to 3.3 million tons of coking coal, used in steelmaking, and 2 million tons of thermal coal, used by power stations, by 2014, Riversdale said in the statement. Tata Steel owns 15 percent of Riversdale.crack crack