RIVERSDALE Mining (ASX: RIV) now boasts a $1.8 billion market value on the strength of its 65 per cent-owned Benga coking and thermal coal project in Mozambique, a joint venture with India's Tata Steel.
Good luck to it, too, as it works towards becoming a long-term 20-million-tonne-a-year producer, one that the world's steel producers - including Tata - are banking on to help ease the grip that BHP Billiton has on coking coal supplies thanks to its fabulous Bowen Basin operations.
But Garimpeiro's interest today is in RTL Corporation (ASX: RTL), which is making the switch to mineral exploration after plodding along as a mining services technology group.
It has just picked up an option over three mineral concessions in Mozambique's Zambezi coal basin, with one of them adjacent to Riversdale's holdings and within 20 kilometres of its Benga coal project.
The deal is with the privately held Dugal, which RTL said is sponsored by US-based investment group Varuna Capital. Under the option, Dugal could get $US550,000 ($A594,000) for giving RTL the right to earn a 70 per cent interest by paying an additional $US500,000 within 12 months, plus some other bits and pieces, not the least of which is 250 million shares with options.
All that reflects what RTL reckons is an ''exciting opportunity (subject to shareholder approval) with potential for large deposits of coking and thermal coal''.
Having a concession next door to Riversdale's Benga project means the claim will not fall on deaf ears.
RTL has got more than 600 million shares on issue. So, even at Friday's close of 3.8 a share, its $23 million market value is not exactly down there with the penny dreadfuls. But that won't seem much if it eventually proves the presence of some thick coal seams on its own patch of Mozambique.
