Coronavirus: 14 mining companies suspend activity in Mozambique

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Coronavirus: 14 mining companies suspend activity in Mozambique

1:23 CAT | 23 Jun 2020

File photo: Lusa

A total of 14 mining companies have suspended activity in Mozambique as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving about 4,000 workers in the sector inactive, the director-general of the National Mines Institute (IINAMI) has told Lusa.

Speaking yesterday, Adriano Sênvano said that the companies which suspended activity included Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM,) which works the ruby reserves in the northern province of Cabo Delgado; Minas de Benga, which holds a coal concession in Tete province in the centre of the country; and Twigg Exploration and Mining, which mines graphite in Cabo Delgado.

“Major companies in the mining sector have halted their activities because of Covid-19, which will certainly have an impact on the volume of production,” Sênvano said.

Brazilian company Vale, he said, has also been forced to reduce coal production in Tete.

“In addition to those three companies, we have other smaller ones with prospecting and research licenses, as well as mining certificates, which also face difficulties,” the IINAMI director general said.

The suspension of mining activity is creating uncertainty regarding job security, Sênvano says.

The companies which are maintaining their operation are working with restrictions imposed within the framework of the state of emergency declared for prevention of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The impact of the new coronavirus also reduced licensing requests for mining activity in Mozambique. In the first half of this year, 144 applications for mining licenses were submitted, against 177 in the same period last year.

Mozambique had, by Monday (June 22), recorded an accumulated total of 737 coronavirus cases, with five deaths and 181 patient counted as recovered.

The Covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 468,000 lives and infected almost nine million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a the French AFP press agency.

The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China. Post Europe succeeding China as the centre of the pandemic in February, the American continent now has the most confirmed cases and deaths.

Source: Lusa