JSW Steel Ltd, India’s biggest steelmaker by capacity, is going ahead with the development of a coking coal mine in Mozambique’s Tete province, securing access to a key raw material used in steel manufacturing.

The company’s Minas de Revuboe (MdR) project in Mozambique’s Moatize coal basin holds about 850 million tonne (mt) of reserves and could produce 250 mt of saleable coal used in steelmaking, Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel said in a statement.

JSW Steel plans to develop the mine in phases. The first stage is expected to take about two and a half years and produce 2.4 mt of coal a year, according to the statement. Its proximity to ports could make the project a strategic supplier to Indian steel plants.

As the company plans to increase its annual steelmaking capacity to 50 mt in India by 2030, the asset will help secure and diversify raw-material supplies while cushioning JSW from volatile global coking coal prices, Parth Jindal of JSW Group said.

With India’s domestic reserves of hard coking coal limited, captive overseas sourcing has become a strategic priority, it said. Indian steelmakers usually import coking coal from Australia, the United States, Russia, Canada and Mozambique, among others.

However, Indian companies have, over the years, zeroed in on Mozambique to own captive mines, but with limited success. Tata Steel had bought into and subsequently sold its stake in a company that indirectly held rights to a coking coal mine.

Five public sector companies operate a coal asset through joint venture outfit International Coal Ventures Ltd (ICVL) in the East African nation, apart from Navin Jindal’s Vulcan International, which owns Mozambique’s largest coal mine at Moatize that lies adjacent to MdR’s licence. Navin Jindal is the brother of Sajjan Jindal.

Even JSW Steel’s $74 million deal to buy MdR — announced in August 2024 — ran into trouble when the administration of then-President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi revoked the local company’s mining lease.

The concession was restored to MdR — owned by the estate of Ken Talbot, an Australian mining tycoon, in May 2025. President Daniel Chapo’s cabinet had by then reversed the cancellation of MdR’s mining contract with the government in April.

On Friday, President Chapo was joined by Parth Jindal and other dignitaries to mark the kick-off of the MdR mine. “With JSW Steel’s presence, Mozambique will prove to international investors the ease of doing business in Mozambique,” Chapo said in a statement.