Anglo American spends big in Mozambique

24th Jul 2012 09:59

Anglo-American, the FTSE 100 mining giant, is to spend over half a billion dollars on a coal project in Mozambique.Its purchase of a 58.9% stake in the Revuboè metallurgical coal operation will cost a total of $555m, the seller is the Talbot Estate.The Revuboè project is a joint venture partnership and includes Nippon Steel Corporation (33.3% interest), and Korean outfit POSCO (7.8% interest). It has a reported resource of 1.4bn tonnes of hard coking and thermal coal suitable for open cut mining, with the potential to support the export of six to nine million tonnes per annum.Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said: "The acquisition of a majority interest in Revuboè is in line with our strategic commitment to grow our global metallurgical coal business to supply our customers from each of the key metallurgical coal supply regions of Australia, Canada and Mozambique. "Revuboè is located in the most attractive area of Mozambique's Moatize coal basin and has a number of infrastructure development options. We look forward to working with the Government of Mozambique and our joint venture partners to progress this exciting prospect."Anglo American shares were up 0.6% at 10:39.BS