British mining company Beacon Hill Resources which has just started exporting coal from its Mozambique coal project is to launch a second exploration and development project in the Southern African country.

In a statement released here, the company revealed that it had set up a partnership with Midwest Africa Limited to explore and develop a coal deposit covering an area of 184 square kilometres in Mozambique Tete province.

Beacon Hill explained that MAL had a licence for that deposit which was located in the Changara district to the south of the Zambezi River and the working coal mines located in the Moatize district.

Beacon Hill Resources is the owner of the Moatize mines and recently started exporting coal. The statement added that the partnership was yet another step in the company expansion strategy for the Tete coal region.

Mr Justin Lewis Beacon Hill chairman noted that the company had started exporting thermal coal and announced that production or coking coal would begin soon. He said that “This new partnership is very important for our strategy, given that the new licence covers an area that is 70 times the size of the Moatize Mines.”

The partnership is called Nongo Limitada and is 99% owned by Beacon Hill Resources and 1% by MAL. In the deal MAL received 60,000 shares in Beacon Hill.

The company said MAL will transfer the licence to Nongo Limitada after which it will control another 19% of this company and will have a 20%stake in total.

(Sourced from Miningreview.com)