A significant coal discovery was made in Mozambique's Tete province, the Central African Mining & Exploration Company said on Friday.

Based on drilling boreholes, CAMEC's geologists have estimated that one of its licensed prospecting areas could contain up to 868 million tonnes of potentially mineable in situ coal.

It has appointed South African company SRK Consulting to perform further exploration work and to sign off on a formal resource estimate.

"As more data becomes available, the geological modelling will commence in earnest and allow for a better understanding of the deposit to be developed," Andrew Groves, chief executive of CAMEC, said.

Sapa