Mozambique Extractive Industry: Guebuza Opens Geology Congress in Maputo

President Armando Guebuza speaking at the Geology Congress in Maputo

Maputo — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza declared on Tuesday that the work done by geologists has contributed to improving the quality of life in the country.

He was speaking in Maputo at the opening of the 2nd Geology Congress of Mozambique, and the 12th Geochemical Congress of the Community of Portuguese Speaking countries (CPLP).

Guebuza said that geology is an area which expresses the growing mastery of man over nature. Geological knowledge was key to the mining industry, and he stressed that higher education institutions should provide the country with the human resources needed to drive the mining sector forward.

He promised that the training of geology and mining professionals will remain a priority for the government. Since independence in 1975, over 300 Mozambican geologists have been trained.

Guebuza insisted that mining must obey international norms, including “respect for the environment, sustainability, and transparency in management”.

He recalled that Mozambique has joined the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), under which governments are obliged to publish all payments they receive from mining companies, and the companies are obliged to reveal the payments they make to governments. Guebuza said Mozambique’s EITI membership expressed a commitment to international norms which, he believed, “show very promising gains”.

Turning to recent discoveries, Guebuza said that the confirmed reserves of natural gas in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado are now in the region of 200 trillion cubic feet.

These are in just two of the offshore blocks – Area 1, operated by the US company Anadarko, and Area 4, operated by ENI of Italy.

Also of great significance were the discovery of world class deposits of graphite in the Cabo Delgado district of Balama, the confirmation of commercial reserves of iron ore in the western province of Tete, and of titanium bearing heavy mineral sands in Inhambane, in the south of the country.

“These are some of the encouraging results of your priceless work, of which all Mozambicans feel proud”, Guebuza told the geologists.