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Mozambique pushes for mining investment
Innocent Madawo
Posted: Tue, 11 Mar 2008

[miningmx.com] -- MOZAMBIQUE has an aggressive campaign to lure mining capital, which has gone to other mineral-rich southern African nations. There has been a tenfold increase in exploration and development spend in that country over the past five years.

The southeast African country, now fully recovered from two decades of civil war, had been fairly slow in attracting investors, but there has been a steady increase in interest in Mozambique's minerals over recent years.

The government of President Armando Guebuza has authorised a plan to step that up and to attract investors to mine, process and market the country’s vast mineral resources, including coal, base metals, uranium, tantalite, gold and copper.

“Right now mining contributes about five percent of GDP (gross domestic product), but we expect that to increase threefold to 15% in about five years,” said national director of mines in the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Fatima Jussub Momade.

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As part of this drive to attract mining investment to Mozambique, Momade attended the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC) annual mining convention in Toronto last week.

“I received a lot of investor enquiries, especially from Canadian companies that have shown interest in explorations and even the possibilities of developing mines in Mozambique,” Momade told Miningmx. "Most are interested in base metals and uranium."

Mozambique has revamped its geological infrastructure and its mineral information systems, including setting up a digital documentation centre, to attract investors.

“We have also improved and adjusted the existing legal and regulatory framework to meet requirements of investors and be competitive in the region,” said Momade.

“Already we have seen a huge jump in mining trends. Mining licenses already issued jumped from about 300 in 2002 to a peak of 1,000 in 2005. Investment figures in exploration and development grew from $24m in 2002 to a projected $227m in 2007,” she said.