Speaking on the last day of the Africa Downunder Conference in Perth, Mozambique Minister for Mineral Resources Esperanca Bias told delegates the country was largely under-explored and had potential for heavy mineral sands, coal, base metals, diamonds, gold and other minerals.
“We expect to see more Australian companies working in Mozambique because we are confident that these companies have the know-how, technology and capability required for exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in Mozambique,” she said.
“Mozambique is endowed with mineral resources and offers good prospectivity for exploration, favourable legal, regulatory and fiscal framework, political stability and investment opportunities.”
Mozambique is currently considered as being one of the countries in the world with the largest resources of coal, in particular high-quality coking coal. There are currently under 100 exploration licenses in the country.
However, Bias stressed that the building of infrastructure for transportation of coal constitutes one of the main challenges for the country’s mining sector going forward.
Bias also said the country was home to a number of heavy mineral sands deposits including the Kenmare Resources’ Moma mineral sands project on the Mozambican coast which is in production.
Mozambique is already home to a number of Australian-listed resource stocks with Riversdale Mining leading the pack with its multi-tenement coking and thermal coal interests.
Riversdale’s Benga coal mine in Mozambique officially opened in April and is on track to start first exports of premium hard coking coal in the second half of 2011.
Fellow Aussie resource play Mantra Resources has been involved in uranium exploration in Mozambique for a number of years and holds a swag of licences as part of its Zambezi Valley project which covers around 684 square kilometres.
Other ASX-listed entities kicking rocks in Mozambique include Perth-based junior ABM Resources and its Mimosa gold project in the Manica province of central Mozambique.
