Indian steelmaker Global Steel Holdings has been awarded a license to mine for coal in Mozambique's northern province of Tete.
The amount of the investment to be made by the Kolkata (Calcutta)-based company in the two coal blocks in question is around $116 million. The two coal blocks, which cover an area of 30,000 hectares and are located close to the mining areas of ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel and Vale, hold proven reserves of 70 million mt.
The five-year license will be renewable upon the company's request.
Global Steel currently has an annual overall steel production of 13.8 million mt in countries such as Bulgaria, Nigeria, the Philippines, Libya and India
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, Indian steelmaker Tata Steel Ltd and Australian miner Riversdale Mining Ltd signed a JV agreement for the development of a hard coking and thermal coal project at key coal exploration tenements held by Riversdale in Mozambique in November 2007. Meanwhile, during the same period, ArcelorMittal also signed a coal mining JV agreement with Mozambique-based Black Gold Mining (Moc) Lda.