Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza will officially open the country’s second biggest investment project on Friday.
Radio Mozambique said that Guebuza would officially open the $460-million Moma heavy sands project located in the Moma district of Nampula on Friday.
The project — owned by Kenmare Resources — is the second biggest investment in the country after Mozal, an aluminium melting project based in Maputo.
Kenmare Resources started mining in the country in the 1980s.
The Moma heavy sands project has the capacity to produce about 800 000 tonnes of amonite per year, which the company expects to increase to 1-million tonnes by 2009.
The project would employ more than 250 local and 90 foreign workers in its initial stages and the number was expected to increase, Radio Mozambique said.
The project has been issued with a 21-year renewable exploration permit.
Daniel Ramos, head of Moma district, told Radio Mozambique that the establishment of the heavy sands project had also started attracting other investors to the area.
He gave an example of tourism projects that were recently approved for the area.
This week tourism authorities in Nampula revealed that a South African-owned company registered in Mozambique had invested more than $3-million in a tourism project on the islands of Caldeira and Nejovo.
Domingos Cintura, Nampula provincial director of tourism, said the group, registered in Mozambique as Group Fresh Limitada, was headed by Jack Francis Truter, a Cape Town-based business executive.
The construction of the five-star lodges, which would also include water sports facilities, would benefit the investors and visitors to the Moma project, he said. – Sapa