Mozambique’s coal production in 2012 totalled 4.9 million tons in 2012, which was an all-time record, the country’s Mining Resources Minister Esperança Bias said Wednesday in Maputo.

At the opening session of a seminar on managing revenue and optimising the benefits of coal and natural gas, Bias said that Mozambique currently had four coal mining contracts, which would soon increase when some prospecting licenses are converted into mining concessions.

“There are conditions in place so that, by 2020, the country will produce over 50 million tons of coking and thermal coal per year,” said the minister adding that “Mozambique is noted to have conditions to become one of the five biggest exporters of coking coal in the world.”

Bias also said that over the last few years over US$5 billion had been invested in coal exploration, and that reserves were estimated at over 20 billion tons, most of which were in Tete province, in the centre of the country.

The minister recognised that there were constraints, particularly a lack of transport infrastructure, but gave assurances that the government has been working with companies in the mining sector to identify solutions for transporting coal through public-private partnerships. (macauhub)