The Monte Muambe mining project, located in the Moatize district of Tete province, achieved an 85% gallium recovery rate in laboratory tests, a result that reinforces the potential for the commercial exploitation of this critical mineral in Mozambique.
The information was released this Thursday (13) by the British mining company NeoTerra Group, formerly known as Altona Rare Earths, which considers the results of the hydrometallurgical and pre-concentration tests a significant step forward in the development of the resources within the concession.
The work was carried out by the specialized firms Comex and SGS Lakefield. According to NeoTerra, the tests conducted by SGS Lakefield achieved an 85% gallium recovery rate through an acid leaching process, while also demonstrating “good selectivity against silica.”
The results represent the first practical confirmation that the gallium identified at Monte Muambe can be recovered using methods with potential for industrial application, although the company acknowledges that further studies will be needed to determine the economic viability of the process. In addition to recovery through leaching, the tests identified a potential route for pre-concentrating gallium using X-ray transmission (XRT) technology.
The method makes it possible to separate the feldspar containing the mineral from the rest of the rock material. According to NeoTerra, feldspar accounts for approximately 30% of the rock mass in the deposit, making it possible to pre-concentrate the material before the processing phase. “Initial results from gallium metallurgy confirm a potential route for the pre-concentration and extraction of gallium at Monte Muambe,” said NeoTerra’s CEO, Cedric Simonet.
Monte Muambe is an inactive volcano located in Moatize and is one of the critical minerals exploration projects under development in central Mozambique. The concession holds a 25-year mining license and benefits from a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to support studies related to the project’s rare earth component.
Gallium is considered a critical raw material by several industrialized economies due 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 this mineral is heavily concentrated in China, a situation that has increased international interest in identifying and developing new sources of supply. The announcement comes after the company revealed in June—while still operating under the name Altona Rare Earths—the discovery of xenotime, a mineral containing heavy rare earth elements, at the same project.
At the time, the results of the drilling campaign conducted in 2025 confirmed widespread enrichment in heavy rare earth elements associated with fluorite and identified, for the first time at Monte Muambe, the presence of xenotime. The company believes that these elements could, in the future, be produced as a byproduct of potential fluorite mining, thereby increasing the economic potential of the concession.
According to estimates released by NeoTerra, the resources currently identified at Monte Muambe include 13.6 million metric tons of rare earths, 3.48 million metric tons of fluorite, and 11.73 million metric tons of ore with an average grade of 54.7 grams per metric ton of gallium oxide.
The company now intends to continue metallurgical testing until it achieves a sufficient level of confidence in a commercially viable recovery process. At a later stage, it plans to proceed with a new drilling campaign aimed at significantly increasing the currently identified resources, with the goal of establishing a resource base of 50 million metric tons or more.
