Cimentos de Maiaia signs coal deal with Vale

Mozambique’s Cimentos de Maiaia has awarded Brazilian mining giant Vale the contract for its coal supply.

The initial deal is for 600tpa of thermal coal from Vale’s mines in the western Mozambican province of Tete. “Every quarter we will take about 200t, and after a year of this contract we shall increase our capacity to use coal from Vale”, said the managing director of Cimentos de Maiaia, Chunjie Gou.

The cement producer’s plant in Nacala Special Economic Zone was inaugurated three months ago and it is expected that the new coal supply agreement will reduce production costs.

The coal will be delivered to the cement plant along the Nacala Logistics Corridor (CLN), the railway that runs from the Moatize coal basin in Tete, across southern Malawi and onto the mineral port of Nacala-a-Velha on the Nampula coast. Vale’s open-cast mine can produce 22Mta.

The CLN is handling 1.3Mtpm, mainly for export. Since the line started operations some 30 months ago, it has exported over 20Mt of coal.