The Brazilian mining company Vale has signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with Mitsui to acquire its 15% stake in the Moatize coal mine project and its 50% stake in the Nacala Corridor rail and port infrastructure project in Mozambique for the sum of US$1 each. The transaction is expected to be completed in 2021. Vale will search for a third party interested in the Moatize coal assets. At a later stage, the group intends to divest from its global coal assets, as it aims to cut its scopes 1 and 2 emissions by 33% by 2030 and to become carbon-neutral by 2050.
Vale has been producing coal at the Moatize coal mine since 2011 and sold a 15% stake in the project to Mitsui in 2015. Coal production averaged 8.8 Mt in 2019. The construction of the 912 km-long Nacala Corridor project, led by a 50:50 consortium of Vale and Mitsui, was completed in 2017 and is estimated to have cost US$4.4bn. It enables to transport 22 Mt/year of coal to an 18 Mt/year coal terminal and to a 4 Mt/year general cargo terminal. The Moatize mine is also connected to the Beira port through a 575 km railway, from which transport has been slowly shifted to the Nacala Corridor.