Mr. Yukio Edano, Minister of Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI), and Ms. Esperanca Bias, Minister of Mozambique Ministry of Mineral Resource, signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation in development of mineral resources such as coking coal in Mozambique on February 16. Mozambique has rare and non-developed large scale coking coal deposit. Nippon Steel holds a stake in Revuboe coal mine development project in Mozambique. Japanese government establishes partnership with Mozambique government as a strategic measure to secure mineral resources stably, which could help Japanese steel industry.
Ms. Bias welcomed Japanese enterprises are entering exploration, development and production of mines in Mozambique. Both governments seek actions to form strategic partnership and exchange information about mine sites, ore reserves and infrastructure for encouraging mining activities. METI will also offer strategic partnership to president of Mozambique who will visit Japan next week. In Mozambique, mine development projects are increasing after the government started to give exploring interests for mineral resource in 2004. Meanwhile, Japanese government amended the JOGMEC law to allow Japanese enterprises to invest in miner’s interest in 2010. Both government puts importance on cultivation of human resources for mining industry and cooperation with both country’s specialized institutions. Nippon Steel and Nippon Steel Trading have the interests in Revuboe project at 23.3% and 10%. The feasibility study finished and the development starts in 2012. The shipment is scheduled to commence in 2014-2015. Estimated reserve is around 80 million tonnes. The quality of coking coal is as high as coking coal in Australia. The investment for the development is US$ 500-600 million. The output is expected at 5 million tonnes per year.