13 July 2012 - Ncondezi Coal is one of the companies that plans to add a coal fired power plant to its coal mining project in Mozambique’s Tete province to make use of what would be otherwise unsaleable coal. The company plans to build, in stages, a 1,800 MW coal-fired power plant with the first stage in place to produce 300 MW in 2017.

That power would then be sold on to South Africa. Ncondezi Coal initially plans to mine four million tonnes of thermal coal, half of which would be for export and the other half to be used in the power plant.

Other groups looking at coal fired power projects in Mozambique include Indian group Jindal Steel and Power which has launched studies for construction of a power station that could produce up to 2,640 MW for sale to domestic and regional markets. The cost of that project is expected to be US$3 billion. The power station is set to be located in the districts of Songo and Changara, in Tete province, where Jindal was granted a mining concession for 25 years covering 21,540 hectares and expected to produce 6.66 million tonnes of coal a year.

Two other companies are developing projects for construction of coal fired power plants in Tete. Vale of Brazil plans to build the Moatize power plant and Rio Tinto plans to build the Benga power plant, each of which could produce 2,000 MW.