On 2nd October at the Maslow Hotel in Sandton the Fossil Fuel Foundation will be holding its inaugural Mozambique Coal Conference. The purpose of this one day meeting is to bring together all those involved in coal exploration and mining in Mozambique, and to provide a forum for the presentation and exchange of relevant and practical information, as well as the creation of networking opportunities.

Coal has been known to occur in Mozambique since 1859 when Richard Thornton completed the first studies of coal occurrence in the country, as part of an exploratory party led by Dr. David Livingstone. For nearly a century and a half not much happened, but the last decade has seen massive interest and exploration in the coalfields of the country, particularly those of the Tete Province.

This resurgence of exploration began in late 2004, when a consortium of companies headed by Brazilian miner, Vale, won the right to develop certain of the Moatize sub-basin coal deposits. This opened the way for various other companies to explore and develop a number of projects within various licence blocks, and currently over forty different companies are involved with coal projects in the Tete Province, with four producing mines.

This work has shown Mozambique to hold some of the largest untapped deposits of coking and thermal coal globally, with Mozambique’s total coal resources being estimated to be as high as 20 billion tonnes. The Moatize Coalfield in particular is being hailed as the largest undiscovered coal province in the world, believed to hold up to 7 billion tonnes of coal. These resources have the potential to make Mozambique the second-largest exporter of coal in Africa, after South Africa.

Despite this enormous promise, exploitation has only begun in earnest in the past five years, and more recently the news has not been all good, with various resource down grades, mining, processing, and logistical issues restraining coal production and export.
Much has been written and discussed concerning the infrastructural challenges, and this conference therefore decided to focus on what we have learnt from a geological, mining and processing point of view in the last few years since mining began in earnest. For the first time the conference will bring together South African and Mozambiquan specialists, with significant expertise in the main coal bearing basins of the country.

The conference will kick off with two talks aimed at establishing the overall geological setting to the Karroo aged coal deposits of sub-Saharan Africa, and Mozambique in particular. This will set the stage for the following four talks, which all focus on various aspects of the refined geology of the coal deposits of the Moatize basin, focussing on the fact that good geological studies and understanding are the foundation of any resource and reserve estimation. The close of this geologically focussed session will bring the conference into lunch.

The first talk of the afternoon session is a scientific talk focussing on the palynological studies being undertaken on the sequence. Following on this the focus shifts to the mining and processing of these uniquely interbedded coals. Coal preparation is crucial to the economic extraction and sale of these coals, and much has been learnt in the past few years. Two talks in particular will focus on the critical aspects of maximising the coking coal potential of the deposits.

The last session will focus on up to date modular plants and their potential in such isolated coalfields.
The last talk of the day will focus on Geoethics. This low profile subject recognises the significant contribution that good geoscience can make in fighting poverty and improving lives across the world. It represents an opportunity for Geoscientists to become conscious of their social role and responsibilities regarding problems related to geo-resources and geo-environment.

The conference will wrap with a facilitated discussion session, followed by sponsored networking drinks. All in all this day promises to be a unique opportunity for southern African specialists to get together and to establish a dominant position in the understanding of the coal deposits of Mozambique.

Issued by: The Fossil Fuel Foundation
           Tel: +27 11 487 2260/3819
           Fax:   086 653 7108
All wishing to attend this conference should contact the conference secretariat:
                      RCA Conference Organisers: robbie@rca.co.za
events@rca.co.za