Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. said Thursday it and affiliate Nippon Steel Trading Co. have acquired coal-mining rights in Mozambique.
Japan's biggest steelmaker plans to start developing the coal mine in Tete Province, central Mozambique, by year's end and begin commercial mining of coal there in 2016, company officials said.
The amount of coal reserves at the mine is estimated at about 1.4 billion tons, while about 5 million tons of coking coal per year are expected to be produced there.
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal plans to import about 1.7 million tons of coal from Mozambique, or some 6 percent of its annual coal imports.