Brazilian miner Vale has confirmed that the start of operations on its new Nacala Corridor railway and port export route for the coal it is mining at Moatize, in Mozambique, will take place within weeks.

“We have concluded the greenfield sections of the Nacala Corridor and the port expansion at Nacala-à-Velha,” stated the company in its recently released report Vale’s Production in 2Q15.

“Revamp of the brownfield sections of the railway is close to completion and the start-up is scheduled for [calendar] 3Q15 [third quarter 2015].”

The Nacala Corridor has been developed, at a previously reported capital expenditure for both the railway and port of $4.444-billion, to relieve a bottleneck that has hampered the Moatize operation, which is located in Mozambique’s western inland province of Tete. “The ramp-up of the first phase of the Moatize coal project is currently restricted by the logistics infrastructure – railway and port – which do not allow for total utilisation of the mine’s nominal capacity of 11-Mtpy [million tons per year],” said the report. With the new corridor, this restriction “will be gradually eliminated”.

Nevertheless, Moatize’s output has increased. The mine predominantly produces metallurgical (or coking) coal and in the second quarter of this year (2Q15) its output of this grade of coal came to 886 000 t, a 21.9% increase over the first quarter (1Q15) figure of 727 000 t. It was also a 24.2% rise over the production in the equivalent quarter last year (2Q14), which amounted to 714 000 t. During the first half of this year (1H15), the mine produced 1 613 000 t of metallurgical coal, as against 1 309 000 t during the same semester last year (1H14) – an increase of 23.3%.

During 2Q15, Moatize also produced 384 000 t of thermal coal, which represented a decline of 10.1% in relation to 1Q15, when production had been 427 000 t. It was also a fall of 15.9% in comparison to the 1Q14 output of 457 000 t. Production for 1H15 was 811 000 t, a reduction of 6.8% as against the 871 000 t of 1H14.

“In 2Q15, Moatize production was 1.270-Mt, 116 000 t higher than in 1Q15,” noted the production report. “In 2Q15, the plant improved its yield but reduced the availability of the material handling system which impacted the coal processing plant availability. These issues were addressed in a plant shutdown in June.”

Vale’s total global coal production in 2Q15 came to 2 012 000 t, comprising Moatize’s output and 742 000 t of metallurgical coal from its Carborough Downs operation in Australia. Incidently, this was the best ever performance by Carborough Downs during a second quarter and was a 37.3% jump over the 1Q15 figure of 541 000 t, as well as being an increase of 25.5% over 2Q14. The Australian operation’s 1H15 output was 93% up on 1H14. Carborough Downs does not produce thermal coal. Vale’s other Australian coal projects, Integra Coal and Isaac Plains, are now in care and maintenance.

Vale’s other African operation is Lubambe copper, a joint venture (JV) in Zambia. Vale and South Africa’s African Rainbow Minerals hold 80% of the operation, with the other 20% belonging to the State-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings. Lubambe is in the process of ramping up its production and its total output came to 6 800 t of copper in concentrates during 2Q15. Lubambe has a nominal production capacity of 45 000 t.

Vale’s share of Lubambe’s output came to 2 700 t in 2Q15, a rise of 6.4% over the 2 600 t of 1Q15. It was, however, a decline of 2.2% in relation to the figure for 2Q14, which was 2 800 t. Production for 1H15 was fractionally down, by 0.3%, over the figure for 1H14 – in both cases, the figure was about 5 300 t.

Highlights

Moatize coal production is increasing, despite logistical problems

Lubambe copper continues to ramp up production