Redeveloping Mozambique's Tantalum Mining Industry

摘要

Mining of the Mozambique pegmatites started as early as 1926 and by 1975 Mozambique had become the world's second large; producer of beryl, with significant contributions to tantalum, lithium, and niobium production. These, largely manual, mining operations were forced to cease around 1986 as a result of the post-independence civil war. Subsequent production has been dominated by artisanal activities and some limited mechanised mining of the soft upper portions of the ore bodies. The abandoned deposits remain ore bodies of significant potential even though previous mining activities have reached close to the transition zone between the soft and underlying hard rock ore. Noventa, recognising their potential for industrialised scale mininc of hard ore, has seized the opportunity of an ordered developmen of these deposits.