OREANDA-NEWS. September 23, 2011. Vale said that 35,000 metric tons of thermal coal, a type of coal used in power stations, will leave the port of Beira on the Orion Express after having been transported via 575 kilometers of railway from Vale's Moatize coal project in the northwest Mozambican province of Tete.

Moatize will be able to initially produce 11 million tons of thermal and coking coal a year. Coking coal, a type of coal used to make steel, is in high demand due to the fast-paced industrialization and urbanization taking place in emerging markets such as China.

Mozambique is expected to become a major source of coking coal in the next decade. Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) in June completed its AUSD3.9 billion takeover of Riversdale Mining Ltd., which has coal tenements adjacent to Vale's in Tete province.