PSU consortium to invest $300 million in Mozambique mine.

International Coal Ventures Ltd. (ICVL) will pump in $300 million for expanding coal production at the Benga mine of the Mozambique assets it has acquired from Rio Tinto as it initiates a formal dialogue with Tata Steel that holds 35% in the venture.

The PSU consortium, comprising state-owned firms Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL), National Minerals Development Corp (NMDC), Coal India and NTPc, bought the assets for $50 million from Rio Tinto, which had got them via a $4 billion acquisition of Riversdale Mining in 2011.

'The Benga mine currently produces five million tonnes per annum and our first priority is to ramp this up to 11-12 million tonnes in the next three to four years and to 16 million tonnes over the next four to five years. For this, we will invest around $300 million for the expansion in the output,' ICVL chairman C S Verma, who is also the chairman of SAIL, told TOI here.


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