Press Trust of India news agency said that Indian state group Coal India plans to launch another tender for exploration of two coal blocks in Mozambique, with estimated reserves of 1 billion tonnes.

A PTI group official said that “The group will launch a new public tender as the winning company of the previous second tender held in June made additional demands and the tender was cancelled.”

The start of exploration of the two blocks had been scheduled for 2015 but analysts contacted by the agency said it would be all but impossible to meet that deadline given that the group had yet to select the company to explore the blocks.

Coal India Ltd has already launched two public tenders, the first of which in 2010 was cancelled due to problems with the currency included in the tender documents and the second in June, 2011 that has now been annulled.

The two blocks cover an area of 200 square kilometres and the respective license, awarded in August 2009 to CIL subsidiary Coal India Africana Limitada is valid for five years for exploration and development.

(Sourced from Press Trust of India)