More than 506,000 tonnes of ore – 500,000 tonnes of titanium and 6,000 tonnes of zirconium – have been stored at the Chinese company Ding Sheng Minerals, SA, which operates the Chibuto heavy sands mine in Gaza province, for about three months, due to the difficulties faced by the high costs of road transport to the port of Maputo, from where it is shipped to Asia.
Although he admits that exports will resume soon, when the conditions are right, Lei Wei, a technician at the firm, believes that the ideal situation would be to restart exports once the dock construction work in the Chongoene district is completed.
“The dock, which aims to reduce the cost of transporting ore to the port, should be completed by February next year at the latest and, initially, the infrastructure will have the capacity to receive ships of up to 25,000 tonnes. Progressively, the flow of ore will be increased to large ships,” said Lei Wei, quoted by the newspaper Noticias.
In April, the government authorised the direct award of a contract to a partnership between the Chinese firm Desheng Port and Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) to build and operate the port terminal, located in the district of Chongoene, in Gaza province, on a concession basis.
Speaking to the press during the 12th ordinary session of the Council of Provincial State Representation Services, the representative of the Chinese mining company said that the company’s forecast was to export 351,000 tonnes of ore, including zirconium and titanium, by next December. However, there are doubts as to whether this target will be met.
Meanwhile, according to Ding Sheng Minerals, in the first quarter of this year the mining company exported 1956 tonnes of titanium and 3396 tonnes of zircon.
Exports so far have resulted in 5.5 million meticais in taxes for the Mozambican state coffers in the first quarter of 2023.
The mining concession to Ding Sheng has a term of 25 years and during this period the company is expected to extract one million tonnes of ilmenite (titanium and iron oxide) a year, as well as heavy sands, which are used in paints, plastics and ceramics.
