Mozambique´s INSITEC, a shareholder in the companies developing the northern Nacala Corridor and Brazil´s mining giant, Vale have signed a protocol of intent to develop the Nacala logistics corridor in the northern Nampula province with a in investment capital of $1.2 billion.
Vale said in a statement on Friday that the logistics corridor would be used to ship coal from the Moatize mines to the port of Nacala and would boost the expansion of mining coal deposits and development of the Evate phosphates mine.
The Northern Nacala Development Corridor (CDN) project involves building an 180-kilometer railroad link between Moatize and Lirangwe in Malawi, and upgrading 730 kilometers of the Malawi-Mozambique line.
CDN also includes the development of a deep-water port at Nacala at the end of the line, and at a later date, the corridor could be used to take copper from the Zambian copperbelt.
Vale is a major transporter of imported coking coal to Brazil’s steelmakers, which it uses as a return cargo for mammoth iron ore exports.
Moatize’s first phase will start operating in the first half of 2011 and will have 11 million metric tons a year capacity.
In the first phase, coal will be carried to the export port of Beira by the existing Sena-Beira railroad, but this corridor has limited capacity, Vale said.
Moatize’s second phase will see output soar to 24 million tons a year, the statement adds.
Source African Press Agency
