Mozambique Government concerned at lack of market for bauxite

The Mozambican government is concerned at the lack of a market for the bauxite mined in the central province of Manica.Last year, Manica produced 4,985 tonnes of bauxite, a 47 per cent increase on the 3,386 tonnes produced in 2014. But much of this production remains unsold because of the difficulties in finding a market, inside or outside the country.

The Manica Provincial Director of Economy and Finance, Virgulino Nhate, speaking at a meeting of the provincial Development Observatory said that the main potential buyer is Zambia - but for reasons that Nhate did not know, Zambian interest in Manica bauxite has declined sharply.

“We have a lot of bauxite in the province”, said Nhate. “Zambia used to buy much of this product. But in recent years it has been buying in very small quantities, and this is compromising our production”. It was perfectly possible to mine much more bauxite in Manica, he said, but it was not worth doing so while there was no market to absorb what was produced.

“We are working to see if we can open other fronts to place our product on the market”, said Nhate, insisting that the government remains committed to finding a solution.

Bauxite is the world's main source of aluminium. To produce aluminium, bauxite is first refined into alumina (aluminium oxide). The alumina is then converted into aluminium in a smelter, at high temperatures and using large amounts of electricity.

There is a large, modern aluminium smelter, MOZAL, on the outskirts of Maputo, but it skips the bauxite refinement stage, and uses alumina imported from Australia as its raw material.