The government of Mozambique is planning the construction of a new coal terminal at the port of Beira capable of handling 18mt (million tonnes) to 24mt per year. The Australian group Riversdale Mining has already indicated an expression of interest in financing the project, developing it and managing the terminal. The port, which is linked by the Sena railway, will use berth 8 to handle coal. At present, this is being refurbished by Riversdale and CVRD, although is eventually expected to handle 6mt of coal a year. Riversdale is also going to make use of a barge service from Benga to Chinde along the Zambezi River as a much longer-term option to rail. However, the capacity at Beira will be insufficient to handle all of the output from the Moatize basin and therefore other options, including the port of Nacala, will have to be looked at.
BC