Mitsui looking to close deal to acquire stakes in Vale’s Moz operations by next March

Japanese general trading company Mitsui & Co, part of the Mitsui group, has stated that it plans to close its deal with Brazilian mining and logistics group Vale to acquire stakes in the latter’s Mozambican operations by March next year. In December 2014, Mitsui & Co agreed to buy 15% of Vale Mozambique, the Vale subsidiary that owns and operates the Moatize coal mine in the African country’s inland Tete province, and 50% of Vale’s share in the Nacala Logistics Corridor, which encompasses a 912 km-long railway running from Moatize via Malawi to the Mozambican port of Nacala and a coal export terminal in Nacala. (Mitsui & Co already holds 15% of Valepar, the holding company that controls the Vale group.) These two parallel deals are worth $763-million.