INTERVIEW-Riversdale seeks partner for Africa coal project

PERTH, Oct 30 - Australian-listed Riversdale Mining Ltd <RIV.AX> is looking for a partner to help develop its Zambeze coal project in Mozambique, and about six companies have so far expressed interest.

"About half a dozen companies have expressed interest but we'll only know who our ideal partner would be after we finish the pre-FEED (front-end engineering and design) studies," Managing Director Steve Mallyon told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

Mozambique is emerging as a potentially big exporter of coal and Riversdale is already developing the Benga coking coal project adjacent to the Zambeze project. It has said that Zambeze has the potential to be a significantly larger scale operation.

The Zambeze project holds an estimated resource of at least 1.7 billion tonnes of hard coking and thermal coal combined, with commissioning seen in 2014-2015.

Benga, in its first phase, is expected to produce 1.7 million tonnes of hard coking coal a year and 300,000 tonnes of thermal coal, with production expected to start in early 2011.

Riversdale also produces about 500,000 tonnes of coal a year from its Zululand colliery in South Africa.

Shares in Riversdale, which has a market value of about A$1 billion ($916.6 million), have surged about 125 percent since the start of the year and stood at A$5.33 on Friday. ($1=1.091 Australian Dollar)