MOATIZE, Mozambique: Brazilian mining giant Vale opened a new $1.7 billion coal mine in Mozambique Sunday, tapping the southern African country's thermal and coking coal reserves of around 23 billion tons. “Vale celebrates today the beginning of mining activities at its coal mining projects in Moatize, in the Tete province of Mozambique, ahead of operations at the processing plant,” the company said in a statement. Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and outgoing Vale chief Roger Agnelli attended the opening ceremony in Moatize outside the city of Tete in northwest Mozambique to mark the largest single investment to date in one of the world's poorest countries. Vale plans to start production in July and export one million tons of coal from the $1.7 billion (1.2 billion euro) project this year, ramping up output to 11 million tons in a few years — and, local officials hope, boosting Mozambique's current economic growth of 6.5 percent. Mozambique's coal reserves have lain relatively untapped since independence from Portugal in 1975. A civil war from 1977 to 1992 crippled the country's economy and decimated its infrastructure. Two decades later, Mozambique is welcoming foreign investors to its mineral wealth and licking its lips at the prospect of a boom. But concerns remain about getting the product to market as infrastructure renovation lags behind.
