Australia's Riversdale Mining (RIV.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has submitted a mining study for an open cast coal mine at Benga in the western Mozambican province of Tete.

    If accepted by the government, the study would be the basis for granting Riversdale a mining concession at Benga, the company said in a statement.

    Riversdale said the mining study was based on planned run-of-mine production of 20 million tonnes per annum. It forecast the prime hard coking coal from Benga would be among the lowest cost coking coal in the world.

    Riversdale executive chairman Michael O'Keefe said the company would complete a detailed environmental impact study on both the mine and an associated coal-fired power station by December.

    "Our mining study clearly states that there can be no successful mining operation in Mozambique without due consideration for the wider economic, environmental and social impact of mining activities," O'Keefe said in a statement.

    The company obtained licences in July to start building a related $2 billion coal-fired power plant in Tete.

    Construction of the plant would begin in early 2009 after approval of the environmental study and it would be capable of producing 2,000 megawatts of power per day for the energy-starved southern Africa region by 2015, the company said.

    Most of the electricity will be sold to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia.

    The firm will also sell power to other southern African countries such as Botswana and Namibia.