The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has confirmed its intention to support the rare earth project at Monte Muambe, located in Moatize, Tete Province, central Mozambique, led by the UK-listed miner Altona Rare Earths.
According to the South African weekly trade magazine Mining Weekly, the confirmation was given on Sunday, 8 February, in Cape Town, South Africa, by USTDA Chief Operating Officer Thomas Hardy during his speech at the high-level meeting on “U.S. Support for Critical Mining Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
The publication reports that USTDA’s support aims to help define the technical and financial pathway for developing Monte Muambe, focusing on the production of rare earth elements needed for high-strength permanent magnets, defense applications, and energy transition technologies. The support is subject to the execution of a formal grant agreement, which is currently under preparation.
Cited in the article, Altona CEO Cedric Simonet stated that this partnership is a clear recognition of the company’s progress in Mozambique and reinforces the shared objective of developing a project of growing strategic importance. “Monte Muambe can play a prominent role in building more resilient global supply chains for both rare earths and fluorspar,” he commented.
During his intervention, Simonet noted that Altona expects to soon receive the results of its recent drilling campaign for fluorspar and gallium, emphasizing that “these results, and the consequent mineral resource estimate, are expected to demonstrate that the fluorspar component at Monte Muambe represents a viable mining project of significant interest.”
Altona Rare Earths is a company focused on critical raw material projects across Africa, including rare earths, fluorspar, gallium, copper, and silver. Its flagship project, Monte Muambe in Mozambique, hosts multi-mineralization with a 25-year mining license, while the company is also advancing the Sesana copper and silver project in Botswana.
At Monte Muambe, Altona has established its first JORC resource for rare earths, is advancing a scoping-level development plan, and aims to accelerate the production of acid-grade fluorspar for clean energy, high-tech, and industrial applications.
The company is also evaluating the recovery of gallium from fluorspar tailings and continues to seek additional assets that fit its strategy of short-term monetization combined with long-term growth in the supply of critical minerals.
Source: Diário Económico
