Twin Project for Mchuchuma coal and Liganga iron ore mining in Ludewa

Twin project for Mchuchuma coal and Liganga iron ore mining in Ludewa, Iringa region has attracted three bidders from the Far East, it has been learnt.

The three companies are now waiting for a cabinet approval to know who is the successful bidder among them.

The National Development Corporation (NDC) Managing Director, Mr Gideon Nassari said over the weekend that a number of multinationals and local companies bid for the multi-million-dollar project.

However, he declined to reveal the names of the three final bidders, saying tender process regulations bar him from doing so. It is understood that bids came from the US, China, South Korea, Australia, India and Singapore.

He said that the cabinet will be briefed by NDC board of directors on the final three bidders before picking one. He said the fate would be known possibly in January next year, but allayed fears that the project may take too long to start.

"We will move very fast once the bidder has been picked", he said.

In February, this year, 25 international companies showed interest on the Mchuchuma project.

These included China Huadian Engineering Company Limited, Sichuan Hongda Company Limited (China), Nava Bharat Pte Limited (Singapore), Sarda Energy and Minerals Limited (India) and STX (Korea).

Bidders for the Liganga iron ore were Sarda Energy and Minerals Limited (India), Sichuan Hongda Co. Limited (China) and STX Corporation (Korea).

Mchuchuma Coal Mine is expected to boost power supply in the country by generating 400 megawatts and this is seen as a big step for extraction of iron ore at the proposed Liganga mine.

The successful bidders will have to spend some good money to improve the infrastructure in the area as there are no reliable roads and a railway network that links the two sites which are 80 kilometres apart.

The Mchuchuma project involves putting up an open cast mine of 1.5 million tonnes per annum, with an investment estimated at more than 600 million US dollars (about 912bn/-). The Liganga iron ore project is valued at more than one billion US dollars (about 1.5trillion/-).