London (Platts)--18Jan2012/653 am EST/1153 GMT

Ncondezi Coal has signed a new rail and port infrastructure partnership agreement with Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique, a 100% subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group, and Minas de Revuboe for a study to develop an integrated transport corridor in Mozambique, the coal exploration company said Wednesday.

The project could potentially provide coal export capacity of between 25-100 million mt/year, it added.

The company said that the project could be the lowest cost rail transport option for exporting coal from Mozambique's Tete province, as it would be the shortest rail distance to port and use new and modern infrastructure.

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The agreement, which entitles the explorer to an export allocation of the whole of its planned 10 million mt/year production from its Ncondezi project in Tete province, is a continuation of a jointly funded infrastructure study completed in the fourth quarter of 2011. The previous study identified a preferred port and rail solution in Mozambique about 500km from Tete and north of the Zambezi River mouth.

It said that RTCM would lead the study work needed to determine the feasibility of the integrated transport corridor and Ncondezi would not be required to contribute capital to the project feasibility or development capital costs.

The explorer would have to negotiate take-or-pay agreements with the project operator once the study work is completed and a decision has been made to implement the project, before the construction and development phase begins. The Ncondezi project?s first production is expected in 2015, and Ncondezi said it "remains optimistic about the ability to also access rail and port capacity for transport of its coal on the Sena/Beira and Nacala corridors, which are to be expanded during the next few years."

--Jacqueline Holman, jacqueline_holman@platts.com

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