“Since 6.30am today the coal mine in Moatize Vale has been unlocked, allowing normal movement of workers to the mine and restoring the coal flow through the Sena line,” an official told Bloomberg.
The complex in the northwestern province of Tete was forced to stop outbound rail shipments on May 12 after a group of 20-30 brickmakers blocked the mine’s rail line with stones and scrap metal.
It was the second stoppage in less than a month for Moatize for the same reason.
Moatize ships between 10,000 and 12,000 metric tonnes of coal daily and conducts mining 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Vale told local media on Monday that the situation was “calm” and it was confident in its position on a labor dispute that resulted in the protest.
That position, which is obviously a point of contention, was to relocate the brickmakers from the Moatize concession starting in 2010.
It has compensated three groups of brickmakers so far at about $2000 per oven.
Vale said 63 brickmakers were still awaiting payment but the first group that was paid in 2010 was at the center of the complaint over the reimbursement’s “insignificant value”
The miner added that in a latest round of government-mediated discussions between the two late last week the workers “abandoned the principle of bringing together existing positions” and presented new compensation proposals.
Some in the group are requesting compensation for lost production of up to two family generations.
The first protest action in April resulted in shots being fired into the air in an attempt to disburse about 300 protestors.
Vale previously said it would spend $4.4 billion on rail and port facilities in Mozambique to export coal from Moatize which had exhausted current capacity.
Earlier this year, the company estimated it would ship 4.5 million tonnes of coal from the complex during 2013.