“We are looking to sell a stake of between 15 [and] 25% but we are flexible, depending on the proposal," Vale coal and fertiliser division head Roger Downey said in a London press conference on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Vale’s efforts to diversify into coal ramped up in 2007 when it advanced the Moatize project in Mozambique and established its Australian coal business by purchasing stakes of the Carborough Downs, Isaac Plains and Integra coal mines plus exploration assets from private company AMCI for $A835 million.
With its slice of the global iron market slipping since, Vale’s strategy is to expand its iron ore production capacity from 306 million tonnes in 2013 to 450Mt in 2018.
"Diversification at any cost, to boost volumes and to be the number one miner is not our aim,” Vale CEO Murilo Ferreira reportedly said.
“We want to be bigger in world class projects, without caring if we are number one, two or three,"
Some analysts estimate that Vale’s coal assets are worth $US4 billion ($A4.4 billion), with Vale reportedly saying a new partnership could tie into one or more major customers – which would signify interested Asian buyers.
In the nine months to September 2013, coal production for Vale’s entire coal operations reached 6.5Mt, an increase of 26.8% in relation to the same period last year, which was influenced by the ramp-up of Moatize mine and the recovery in the performance of the Australian mines.
In 2010 Ferreira’s predecessor Roger Agnelli had an aim of increasing production to 40Mt of coal and 450Mt of iron ore by 2014-15.
