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Executive Ricardo Gaviria told Dow Jones Newswires late last week that MPX will spend about $US3 billion through 2016 to increase production.
The company aims to produce about 200,000 tons at the end of next year and ramp up to 1.7 million tons in 2013.
Coal production is expected to be at full throttle by 2014, he told the news service at a conference, and will realize 35Mt by 2020.
MPX, owned by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, has been working on four coal mining projects in its La Guajira concessions in Colombia over the past several years.
The open cut Caverales and Papayal projects host 40Mt of coal while the San Juan underground project has 1.6 billion tons, according to MPX’s website.
The San Juan project is evidently a proposed longwall mine, with an image on the company website showing a computer-generated picture of a longwall face featuring a shearer and powered roof supports.
Other players in Colombia include BHP Billiton, Xstrata, Drummond and Glencore International.
According to government statistics, Colombian coal production this year is expected to total 85-90Mt, versus 2010’s production of 76Mt.
Mining minister Carlos Rodado told Dow Jones last month that, despite heavy rains which put a damper on production, the output target was still achievable.
Most of Colombia’s operations are open pit and significant rain totals last year were cited for the reduced production.
So far this year, the continued heavy rains have taken a toll on all of its economic sectors, including mining and oil.
Colombia is the world’s fifth-largest coal exporter.
