On 18 January 2010, Riversdale Mining (an Australian coal producer) received environmental approval from Mozambique to build the Benga power plant. This approval was granted by the Coordination of Environmental Action (MICOA) after Riversdale Mining completed an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) in mid 2009.
The proposed Benga power plant will be located in the Tete province of Mozambique in close proximity to Riversdale Mining's world-class Benga Coal Project which will supply thermal coal to the plant, the coal miner said on Monday.
The power station will be developed in two stages: a 500 MW coal-fired, mine-mouth power station (Stage 1) expected to be completed during 2013 using existing transmission assets and an upgrade to a capacity of 2 000 MW (Stage 2) depending upon the proposed transmission backbone and other transmission capacity.
The Zambeze Project is the company's second major coal project in the Moatize Basin and is similar in structure to Benga with 22 coal seams outcropping over a strike length of 14 km across the northern portion of the tenement.
Riversdale Mining has also been granted access to the existing Mozambique power transmission network. The company previously disclosed that a key precondition still needs to be satisfied, which involves concluding satisfactory power purchase agreements with various off-take parties. These discussions are progressing.
For more information visit the website: www.riversdalemining.com.
