Mozambique’s production of graphite for electric car batteries fell by 64% in 2024, to 34,899 tonnes, one of the lowest records in recent years, according to government figures.
According to the Ministry of Finance’s budget execution report for 2024, the reduction, which corresponds to just 11% of the target of 329,040 tonnes of graphite set for the whole year, was mainly the result of the shutdown of the GK Ancuabe Graphite Mine in 2023.
“As well as the interruption of the activities of the Twigg Mining and Exploration company [of the Australian group Syrah Resources], due to the introduction of synthetic graphite on the international market, combined with labour problems in the company that culminated in the paralysis of mining operations,” the document reads.
Mozambique produced 97,346 tonnes of graphite in 2023 and a peak of 165,932 tonnes the previous year, according to government figures.
The graphite extracted at Mozambique’s Balama mine by Australian mining company Syrah Resources will be used from 2026 in the batteries of US electric car manufacturer Lucid, considered one of the most advanced in the world.
According to information provided to the markets on Monday by Syrah, this is a three-year agreement involving the Australian group’s Vidalia plant in the United States, which in turn is powered by graphite mined in northern Mozambique, providing for a three-year supply of 7,000 tonnes of natural graphite active anode material (AAM).
Lucid is a technology company listed on the Nasdaq stock market and based in Silicon Valley.
At its factory in Arizona, USA, the brand produces the Lucid Air, as well as a new SUV (sports utility vehicle) model, the Lucid Gravity, and from January 2026 Vidalia will supply the material to the car brand’s battery manufacturers.
“Vidalia and its vertical integration with the [Mozambican mine of] Balama are a unique value proposition for governments and participants in the battery supply chain,” Syrah emphasises, noting that in the current structure of the natural graphite and AAM supply chain, Vidalia “is one of the few suppliers” of its kind of this “critical mineral supply”.
As such, it says, Vidalia, fuelled by the Balama mine in Cabo Delgado province, “is an essential source of supply of key minerals for the North American electric vehicle battery market”.
The Australian mining company Syrah announced earlier that in November it received the first disbursement, of US$53 million (€50.9 million), of a US$150 million (€144 million) loan from the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
This was the first loan of its kind from the US government’s development finance institution for a graphite mining operation, involving the expansion of the mine in Balama and its sustainability.
“Further DFC loan disbursements are not available while Balama operations are blocked by the protest actions. The disruption of operations at Balama is being monitored by all parties,” Syrah said, stating that it “continues to work in collaboration” with the DFC and the US Department of Energy.
Lusa
