5 January 2009
Maputo — The Governor of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, Eliseu Machava, has confirmed that the graphite mine in the district of Ancuabe, paralysed for the last ten years, will resume production in mid-2009.
Last week, Machava signed a memorandum of understanding with the Swiss company Timcal Graphite & Carbon which was awarded the contract to operate the graphite mine, following a tender launched by the Mozambican government in May 2008.
The mine closed in 1999 because output could not cover the costs pr production, particularly the cost of electricity. The power came from diesel-fired generators, and the rising price of diesel dealt the mine a fatal blow.
"High electricity costs were among the main factors that made it impossible to continue operating the Ancuabe graphite mine", said Machava. "The generators consumed enormous amounts of diesel, and made operating the mine unsustainable".
But this problem is about to be solved as the power lines from the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi approach Ancuabe. Work on the transmission line from the Mutoro sub-station to Ancuabe is under way and should be complete by the middle of the year,
"Shortly Ancuabe district will be connected to the national electricity grid", said Machava. "This will be fundamental for relaunching economic activity, in the context of the efforts to fight against absolute poverty".
In the 1990s, the graphite mine employed about 100 workers, many recruited locally, and it is expected that some of these workers will be readmitted by Timcal.
The feasibility studies have shown that there could be over a million tonnes of graphite in the Ancuabe deposit.
Prior to the 1999 closure the mine was run by Grafites de Ancuabe SARL, which was a consortium between the Irish company Kenmare Resources (with 77 per cent of the shares), the British Commonwealth Development Corporation and the Mozambican state. The consortium used open cast mining technology, and was processing 7,500 tonnes of graphite a year.
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