Brazilian mining major Vale’s Moatize mine, in the Tete province of Mozambique, produced some four-million tons of coal last year, its second full year of operation. This was reported by the group’s subsidiary, Vale Moçambique, in its recently published ‘Relatório de Sustentabilidade 2013’ (Sustain-ability Report 2013). Of this total, about three-million tons was transported to the port of Beira by around 2 000 trains along the Sena railway line. This coal was then exported, using 35 ships.
Moatize Phase 1, Vale’s first greenfield project outside Brazil, has been developed at a cost of $1.88-billion and has a production capacity of 11-million tons a year (Mt/y). Moatize Phase 2 will double this to 22 Mt/y. Development of Phase 2, which requires an investment of $2.06-billion, will start next year. Production ramp-up at Moatize has been hampered by inadequacies in the railway and port infrastructure.
As a result of these problems, “we are one of the main investors in the local logistics infrastructure”, noted Vale Moçambique in the report, citing its railway new construction and rehabilitation projects to create a new transport route linking Tete to the Port of Nacala a Velha, as well as the creation of a multipurpose port terminal at the latter city. The development of this Nacala Corridor will cost $4.4-billion by 2015. The construction and rehabilitation work has created more than 5 000 jobs in Mozambique, plus more than 4 000 in Malawi. Further, the company has also invested in the upgrading of the Sena line and the Beira port.
During last year, the group’s Mozambique subsidiary spent $33.1-million on social and environmental activities, of which 72% ($23.7-million) was allocated to social initiatives and the rest ($9.4-million) to environmental initiatives. Of the social spending, 80.1% was used to rehabilitate houses in the settlements of Cateme and 25 de Setembro for people who had to be resettled because of the development of the Moatize mine. In all, this involved 625 houses in Cateme – 85% of all houses in the settlement – and 18 in 25 de Setembro (or 10% of the total). Of the rest, 12% was employed to electrify Cateme and 7.9% to install a water distribution system in the same settlement.
Of the environmental expendi-ture, 47.1% was for environmental management, 23.7% was allocated to water resources and 8.4% to atmospheric emissions. Residues received 7.7%, environmental studies and environmental licen-cing processes 4.9%, dams and dykes and tailings dumps 2%, con-taminated areas 0.7% and ‘others’ 5.5%.
In terms of personnel, in 2013 Vale Moçambique had 2 200 permanent staff (up from 1 900 in 2012 ) and 1 000 permanent contractor staff (in service areas such as security, maintenance and cleaning – a decrease from 1 500 in 2012). In addition, 10 700 people were employed by contractors working on Vale projects such as the Nacala corridor. Up to and including 2013, Vale Moçambique’s permanent staff had received more than 200 000 hours of training. Over the same period, 1 033 apprentices had been trained.
The company has also provided training for members of local communities who are not employees. In 2012 and 2013, about 1 300 people received voca- tional training, delivered in cooperation with the Dom Bosco Vocational School and the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training.