In 2024, Mozambique expects to break the production record for tantalite, a highly valued and rare ore sought after by the electronics industry, approaching 270 tonnes in one year.
According to government documents with forecasts for next year, the country is expected to produce 268.9 tonnes of tantalite, a 7% increase on this year’s plans. In 2022, Mozambique planned to produce 251.3 tonnes of tantalite, while in 2021 it mined just 178.5 tonnes and in 2020 just over 209 tonnes.
“The level of tantalite production up to the first half of 2023 stood at 51 per cent of what was planned, and it is expected to continue on the same trend until December,” the government explains in the same report.
For 2024, the government expects a growth rate of 7%, largely due to the high production levels of licence 724C held by the British mining company Highland African Mining Company (HAMC), the largest producer of this mineral in the country.
In 2002, HAMC signed a concession agreement to exploit this mineral in Mozambique.
Tantalite is a mineral made up of niobium and tantalum, sought after for its application in the electronics industry, in mobile phones and capacitors, due to its resistance to heat and other properties.
Overall, the Mozambican government expects growth of 18.6 per cent in the extractive industry in 2024, influenced by the “increase in production of most minerals with great weight in the global structure”, namely gold, heavy sands, graphite and thermal coal.
