The Haiyu Mozambique Mining Company, of Chinese capital, is waiting for inspectors from the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development to inspect it with a view to the approval and concession of the environmental operation license to start heavy sands exploration in Mpago community, in Moma district, Nampula province.
The environmental sector manager and press officer of the mining company, Amilton Maremula, who disclosed the fact during the visit made last week by the secretary of State, Mety Gondola, explained that for this heavy sands exploration project millions of US dollars were invested.
At the Mpago mine, where the company is in the implementation phase, 120,000 tons of sand will be mined per year, of which 98 percent will be ilmenite and the remainder zircon.
The respective warehouses, mineral separation factory and all the respective dredgers, including the workshop equipment, have been installed. Maremula said there are no settlements in the entire 1900 hectare area where in this first phase the heavy sands will be exploited in the Mpago community.
“The families are very distant from this area and there is no room for resettlement, but there is room for social responsibility aspects, since at the time of the public and community consultation meetings several requests were made to the company.
We have responded to these requests, which are in the approval phase by the district government,” said Maremula.
The secretary of state for Nampula province, Mety Gondola, promised to work with central level bodies to speed up the granting of the environmental operating license to allow this company to start heavy sands mining.
Gondola recommended the mining company to repopulate the areas of mangrove culled on the Moma district coastline in order not to compromise the reproduction of crustaceans, which are important to leverage the Mozambican economy.
