Mozambique: Nyusi inaugurates heavy sands project in Chibuto – Watch

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Mozambique: Nyusi inaugurates heavy sands project in Chibuto – Watch

8:09 CAT | 05 Dec 2022

Photos: ICS-Instituto de Comunicação Social-Sede

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday inaugurated a factory processing heavy mineral sands in Chibuto district, in the southern province of Gaza.

The factory belongs to the Chinese company Dingsheng and cost 700 million US dollars. It occupies an area of 3,000 hectares, and consists of two production lines with the capacity to process 10,000 tonnes of minerals a day (mostly titanium ores).

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Nyusi announced that the Chibuto heavy sands project could contribute annually about 36 million dollars to the state coffers in taxes during the life span of the project. In royalties, the project could generate more than eight million dollars a year.

Construction of this open-cast mine began in 2014, and the first minerals were produced six years later, on an experimental basis.

He believed that the Chibuto mine would prove “an indelible mark” for Mozambique and for southern Africa.

“This undertaking is an important gain of great relevance”, he said. “We met with the investors on several occasions an encouraged them to continue. This is a clear demonstration that our development has nothing to do with geographical situation”.

Nyusi stressed that the country is moving gradually towards synchronised development, in all provinces.

Currently, he added, about 20 per cent of Mozambique’s exports are metals and other minerals. The contribution of the extractive industry to Mozambique’s gross domestic product has risen from 1.1 per cent in 2011 to 10 per cent in 2021.

Nyusi was sure this growth will accelerate thanks to the start of the production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG), from the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Mozambique’s total exports reached a value of 2.4 billion dollars in 2021, compared with 360 million dollars in 2011.

The heavy sands deposit in Chinuto is estimated at two billion tonnes, and has led Dingsheng to propose setting up a manufacturing industry alongside the mine. Nyusi said efforts are under way to ensue that all the added value chain occurs in Mozambique, in line with the government’s “Industrialise Mozambique” programme (PRONAI), which has job creation as one of its main goals.

Watch the TVM report.