The mineral industry of Mozambique plays a significant role in the world's production of aluminium, beryllium, and tantalum.
[2] The production of coal was estimated to have increased by 193% in 2006; granite, by 150%; garnet, 103%; diatomite, 33%; marble, 0.3%; cement, 55%; bauxite, 2.6%; dumortierite, 92%; and limestone, 0.5%.
[1] The Mozal aluminium smelter, which used alumina imported from western Australia as raw material, increased output to 564,000 metric tons (t) in 2006 compared with 555,000 t in 2005.
[1] As of 2006, Pan African Resources plc of the United Kingdom was considering the development of a mine at the Fair Bride deposit on its Manica gold project.
[1] Mittal stated that production of steel rods at CSM and wire and nails at Trefil could restart by April 2007; the company planned to invest an additional $1 million to reopen the plants.
[1] It closed the mine in 2013, saying that the ore with the most tantalum had already been processed, and what remained was both more radioactive and deeper, making production more expensive.
Also, no port in Mozambique is certified to handle the level of radioactivity it found, so the company was obliged to send its product by truck to Walvis Bay in Namibia.
[1] Men attacked the Muiane mine with "guns, machetes and pickaxes"[5] in 2015, upset over the shooting of what the company said was an illegal miner.
By then Pacific Wildcat had acquired the mine in 2009 and ran it as a wholly owned subsidiary,[6] who had an agreement in place to sell it for $1,315 and payment of its $250,000 debt.
[1] In 2005 and 2006, Cimpor's production was reduced by operational problems at the Matola plant; the kiln was shut down for two months in 2006 to install and repair environmental protection equipment.
[1] The company planned to start mining in early 2007; the initial rate of ilmenite production was expected to be 700,000 t/yr.
[1] In the second half of 2007, Kenmare planned to complete an expansion to increase ilmenite production to 800,000 t/yr in 2008; the output of zircon would be 56,000 t/yr, and rutile, 21,000 t/yr.
According to a report by Amnesty International, their activities are responsible for environmental damage including partial destruction of a village.
[7] Under Portuguese rule, few geological surveys had been done, but after independence, huge new coalfields were discovered in the north western Tete Province described by one source as "...one of the largest coal plays on the globe.
"[8][9] In 2006 Vale of Brazil completed a feasibility study on the development of a mine in the Moatize basin coalfield in Tete.
Beacon estimated production was 0.1 million tons of coal in 2012, transported to the port of Beira using a fleet of 40 trucks.
[14] In April 2010 the Australian company Riversdale Mining (bought by the Rio Tinto Group in 2011[15]) opened the Benga coal project in Tete.
[16] Riversdale estimated in 2010 that the Benga coalfield had 502 million tons of coal reserves[17] but in 2013 Rio Tinto downgraded these reserve estimates and noted that "...the development of infrastructure to support the coal assets is more challenging than Rio Tinto originally anticipated..."[18] The Revuboè Mine project was another Moatize Basin coalfield mine.
The reconstruction of the freight line was restarted in March 2012[21] but the work was still not finished by February 2013[22] In 2012 it was reported that coal exports had to be transported to Beira by a combination of truck and rail.
[23][24] In 2010–2011, Anadarko Petroleum and Eni discovered the Mamba South gas field, recoverable reserves of 4,200 billion cubic metres (150 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of northern Cabo Delgado Province.
[27][28] Meanwhile, the ambitions of Mozambique to become an exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have progressed and Eni commissioned in 2022 its 3.4 mtpa Coral South FLNG[29] in the Rovuma Basin.
[1] OmegaCorp Ltd. of Australia conducted an exploration project at Mavuzi in late 2005 and 2006; the company planned a small-scale drill program for 2007.