Ahmedabad, India, 10 June – Indian company Sadbhav Engineering has bought 74 percent of Hong Kong-based mining company Ocean Bright Corporation Limited (OBCL), the company said in a statement issued in Ahmedabad Monday.

With this acquisition, carried out via its subsidiary Sadbhav Natural Resources Pvt, Sadbhav Engineering gained mining rights in three Mozambican provinces, which are directly-owned by OBCL subsidiaries.

Specifically the company can prospect for copper ore in an area of 24,400 hectares in Tete province, limestone in a similar-sized area of Nampula province and coal in an area of 5,230 hectares in Manica province.

The chairman of Sadbhav Engineering, Vishnu Patel, said at the time of the acquisition, that the company had contracted Holtec Consulting to carry out a feasibility study on the best use of the resources and added that when it was finished, at the end of September, a request would be made to the Mozambican government to obtain a license for actual mining.

Patel also said that the preliminary results of prospecting in Nampula province were very promising, with geologists predicting limestone reserves of around 350 million tonnes, with commercial exploration due to begin in April, 2009.

Sadbhav Engineering is specialised in civil engineering projects, particulalry roads and motorways, irrigation and mining. (macauhub)