Mozambique's woeful infrastructure poses some of the biggest challenges for miners wanting to invest in coal mining projects in the southern African country.
The country's growing coal industry will be in the spotlight this week at a conference in the capital Maputo.
Below are some planned projects to upgrade and expand existing roads, ports and rail lines.
* MAPUTO'S MATOLA TERMINAL:
South African logistics group Grindrod said it had recently expanded capacity at the Matola coal terminal in the south of Mozambique to 6-7 million tonnes, out of which 5 million will be for coal and 2 million for magnetite. The company is now finalising the feasibility study to potentially add 20 million tonnes to the terminal's capacity by late 2014.
* SENA RAILWAY LINE:
Mozambique's ports and railways company CFM expects to complete a much-delayed refurbishing of the 600 km-long Sena rail line linking the Beira port with coal mines in the Tete province by early 2013. After the upgrade is completed, the line will be able to carry around 6 million tonnes of coal per year. A further upgrade is planned to increase capacity on the line to around 18-19 million tonnes, which is likely to coincide with the building of a new coal terminal at Beira with a similar capacity, which should be completed by 2015. In the absence of sufficient capacity on the Sena railway line, companies which already started producing, including Beacon Hill Resources, have been transporting coal by trucks.
* RIVER BARGES:
Rio Tinto is exploring the option of using barges down the Zambezi river to get its coal to Beira. The idea is to initially move 2 million tonnes of coal per year and build that up to around 12 million tonnes.
* BEIRA PORT:
The shallow Beira port is limited in that it can only accommodate vessels with a capacity of 30,000-40,000 tonnes, which would make it difficult to ship the amounts planned by majors such as Vale and Rio Tinto. The port would require dredging to handle Panamax vessels. Studies are being conducted into the construction of a new terminal at Beira, which would have a capacity to handle between 18-26 million tonnes per year.
* CHINDE: Coal producers are also looking at building a 20 million tonne coal terminal at Chinde, north of Beira. The port's construction is planned to coincide with the start-up of production at Rio Tinto's larger Zambeze project, expected to begin producing from 2015.
* NACALA: Mozambique's Nacala Development Corridor (CDN) and Brazil's Vale may expand the deep-water port at Nacala to be able to handle up to 20 million tonnes from around 1 million tonnes of coal per year. This will include the upgrade of the railway line between the Moatize basin and Nacala. Vale has said it may use Nacala as an alternative to Beira port. Nacala is a trans-shipment hub for landlocked countries including Malawi and Zambia and has been used to handle regional exports of fertiliser, sugar, wheat and tobacco. - Reuters