VALE ENTERS PARTNERSHIP TO PRODUCE LIQUID FUEL

The Brazilian mining company Vale is to enter into a partnership with the Portuguese company SGC Energia to build an industrial unit to convert coal into liquid fuel in Moatize district, in the central Mozambican province of Tete.According to Tuesday’s issue of the Portuguese daily newspaper “Diario Economico”, the facility will use coal from Vale’s open cast mine in Moatize.High quality coking coal will be exported, while thermal coal will be burnt at a planned power station to produce 300 megawatts of electricity. The remaining, low grade, coal with high ash content will be converted into liquid fuel.In May, Vale’s chairperson Roger Agnelli estimated that a liquefied fuel processing plant could produce 300 million litres of fuel a year, of which about half would be used by Vale in Mozambique. The rest would be sold on the domestic fuel market, thus reducing Mozambique’s need to import liquid fuels.SGC Energia is involved in developing renewable energy projects, and is currently working in Mozambique in the Enerterra jatropha project. This is a project to produce biodiesel from the seeds of the jatropha plant, grown in an area of almost 19,000 hectares in Cheringoma district, in the central province of Sofala.