Mozambique: mining investments eightfold in four years

Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources Esperança Bias told the country’s parliament on Wednesday some information about the mining sector in the country, proving that mining has a growing importance for the former Portuguese colony. Bias said that the amount of direct investment in geological and mining activity in Mozambique rose nearly eightfold in four years, from US$ 101 million in 2004 to US$ 804 million in 2008; the value of mining production rose from US$ 35.2 million to US$ 275 million over the same period.

Several mining companies discovered the nearly untouched Mozambican soil in the last years, but Esperança Bias chose to mention the recent investment was made by Irish company Kenmare Resources in the titanium bearing heavy mineral sands deposit in Moma district, on the coast of the northern province of Nampula. According to Bias the company announced a US$ 460 million investment and created 1,582 jobs during the constriction phase and 450 jobs in the current production phase; Kenmare has paid the State more than US$ 380,000 in taxes up to the moment.