The Monte Muambe mining project, located in the Moatize district of Tete province, has achieved an 85% gallium recovery rate in laboratory tests — a result that strengthens the case for commercial exploitation of this critical mineral in Mozambique.
The announcement was made on Thursday (13) by British mining company NeoTerra Group, formerly known as Altona Rare Earths, which described the hydrometallurgical and pre-concentration test results as a significant step forward in the development of resources within the concession.
The work was carried out by specialist firms Comex and SGS Lakefield. According to NeoTerra, tests conducted by SGS Lakefield achieved an 85% gallium recovery rate through an acid leaching process, while also demonstrating what the company described as ‘good selectivity against silica’.
The results represent the first practical confirmation that the gallium identified at Monte Muambe can be recovered using methods with industrial application potential, although the company acknowledges that further studies will be required to determine the economic viability of the process. In addition to recovery through leaching, the tests identified a possible gallium pre-concentration route using X-ray transmission (XRT) technology.
The method allows feldspar containing the mineral to be separated from the remaining rock material. According to NeoTerra, feldspar accounts for approximately 30% of the rock mass present in the deposit, creating the possibility of pre-concentrating the material ahead of the processing stage. ‘The initial gallium metallurgy results confirm a possible route for the pre-concentration and extraction of gallium at Monte Muambe,’ said NeoTerra Chief Executive Cedric Simonet.
Monte Muambe is an inactive volcano situated in Moatize and represents one of the critical minerals exploration projects under development in central Mozambique. The concession holds a mining licence valid for 25 years and benefits from a US$1.8 million grant from the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), intended to support studies related to the project’s rare earths component.
Gallium is classified as a critical raw material by several industrialised economies owing to its use in the manufacture of advanced semiconductors, 5G networks, radar systems, satellite communications, solar panels, LED lighting, and fast-charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
Global production of the mineral is heavily concentrated in China, a situation that has heightened international interest in identifying and developing new supply sources. The announcement follows the company’s disclosure in June — still under its previous name, Altona Rare Earths — of the discovery of xenotime, a heavy rare earth-bearing mineral, at the same project.
At the time, results from a 2025 drilling campaign confirmed widespread heavy rare earth enrichment associated with fluorite and identified, for the first time at Monte Muambe, the presence of xenotime. The company believes these elements could in the future be produced as a by-product of any eventual fluorite mining operation, enhancing the economic potential of the concession.
According to estimates released by NeoTerra, resources currently identified at Monte Muambe include 13.6 million tonnes of rare earths, 3.48 million tonnes of fluorite, and 11.73 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 54.7 grams per tonne of gallium oxide.
The company now intends to continue metallurgical testing until it achieves sufficient confidence in a commercially viable recovery process. At a later stage, it plans to advance a new drilling campaign aimed at significantly expanding the resources currently identified, with an objective of defining a resource base of 50 million tonnes or more.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/?p=530290
