The Benga Coal Mine is a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

mine located in

Tete Tete is the capital city of Tete Province in Mozambique. It is located on the Zambezi River, and is the site of two of the four bridges crossing the river in Mozambique. A Swahili trade center before the Portuguese colonial era, Tete continues ...

, Changara District,

Tete Province Tete is a Provinces of Mozambique, province of Mozambique. It has an area of 98,417 km² and a population of 2,648,941 (2017 census). Tete is the capital of the province. The Cahora Bassa Dam is situated in this province. Districts On ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 1.9 billion tonnes of

coking coal Metallurgical coal or coking coal is a grade of coal that can be used to produce good-quality coke. Coke is an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking. The demand for metallurgical coal is highly coupled ...

, one of the largest coal reserves in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the world. The mine is operating and is currently producing prime hard coking coal and thermal coal. In mid-2014 the mine was producing 5 million tonnes per annum, with the potential to double that. The mine is said to have state-of-the-art wash plant and surface infrastructure. The main challenge facing the mine is its ability to transport coal to India as the Mozambique government in the past has prevented its barges from using the Zambezi River.

Ownership

ICVL, a joint venture of five companies owned by the Indian government comprising

Steel Authority of India Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is a central public sector undertaking based in New Delhi, India. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Steel, Government of India with an annual turnover of INR 1,03,480 Crore (US$13 billion) for fisc ...

, Coal India,

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, (abbreviated as RINL), also known as ''Vizag Steel'', is a public steel producer based in Visakhapatnam, India. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), India's ...

, National Minerals Development Corporation and National Thermal Power Corporation, now owns 65 percent of the Benga coal mine. The other 35% is owned by Tata Steel, a subsidiary of

Tata Group The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...

Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian Multinational corporation, multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine ...

acquired 65 percent of the mine in 2011 when it bought Riversdale Mining for $3.9 billion. In July 2014 the ownership changed when International Coal Ventures Private Limited acquired Rio Tinto's interest in Benga and other mines and exploration projects in the Tete province of Mozambique. Rio Tinto by this time had almost written off the assets, selling them to ICVL for just $50 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benga Coal Mine Coal mines in Mozambique Tete, Mozambique