Indian consortium International Coal Ventures Limited (ICVL) plans to invest US$2 billion in Mozambique, including construction of a power station. ICVL director general Nirmal Chandra is quoted in the local media as saying the amount includes a project to transform cooking into liquid fuels in addition to mining within next three years of 13 million tons of coal annually.

To achieve economies of scale, the consortium decided to build a factory for transforming coking coal into liquid fuels, a thermal power station with a capacity of 300 megawatts and gradually increase coal mining up to 13 million tons in 2017. In July last year, the consortium signed an agreement with Anglo-Australian group Rio Tinto to buy a 65-percent stake in the Benga mine and 100 percent of the Zambezi and Tete Oriental mines in Tete province, Mozambique for a total of US$50 million.

ICVL has already sent three shipments of coal mined at Benga for SAIL and the RINL, and has plans to send five shipments this year. The consortium was formed in 2009 as a special purpose vehicle for state-owned steel companies, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd and Coal India with a registered capital of US$1.62 billion.