Coal India to give up Mozambique mining licences completely

Kolkata, Aug 29 (IANS) Coal India Ltd (CIL) has submitted its application to National Institute of Mines of Mozambique for complete surrender of prospecting licences which were awarded to its wholly-own subsidiary Coal India Africana Limitada (CIAL) as mining would be "technically not feasible" in the licence areas, its latest Annual Report said.

"A mineability study has been undertaken based on the findings of the geological report. The findings of the mineability study revealed that it is technically not feasible to do mining in the licence areas of CIAL. Accordingly, CIL board accorded its approval for surrender of prospecting licences ... to the Government of Mozambique."

"Pursuant to this decision, applications for complete surrender of prospecting licences have been submitted to the National Institute of Mines (Instituto Nacional de Minas), Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, Government of Mozambique," company's latest report said.

CIL said in its report that the "response of the Government of Mozambique" is awaited.

For extraction of coal, two prospective licences covering a total area of 224 sq.km. were awarded to CIL's African subsidiary with validity from August 2009 to August 2014.

Out of 224 sq.km. of the total licence areas, 170 sq.km. area having no occurrence of coaly horizons till a depth of 500 metre, as revealed in the geological report, was already surrendered to the Mozambique government.

The remaining 54 sq.km. was retained for which the Mozambique government issued new licences valid till August 2019.

The decision to relinquish was taken based on the geological report.