Maputo, 5 Apr (AIM) – About 400 tonnes of titanium, produced by the Chinese mining company Dingsheng, in Chibuto district, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, are awaiting export to the Asian market, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily ”Noticias”.
Without saying how long the mineral has been stored, company officials said it has not yet been exported due to the high costs of road transport between Chibuto and the port of Maputo.
The company informed the Secretary of State for Gaza Province, Lourenco Lindonde, of this situation during a visit he made to Chibuto on Monday.
Lindonde put an optimistic gloss on the stockpiled minerals, claiming that the problem will be overcome once a dock is built at Chonguene, in Gaza. This will allow minerals to be shipped abroad without passing through Maputo.
Lindonde added that production at Dingsheng has been increasing since the inauguration, in December, of two heavy sands processing units.
“We are on the right path”, he claimed, “and we are encouraging the company to continue producing. This is changing the lives of the population, not only locally, but throughout the country”.
With the increase in production, it is expected that the state will collect about 20 million meticais (312,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) in taxes from Dingsheng by the end of 2023.
The area granted to Dingsheng is estimated to contain more than two million tonnes of titanium minerals. Currently 500 people are working at the company, of whom only 30 are foreign specialists.
(AIM)
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