Mozal is an aluminium smelter joint project in Beluluane Industrial Park, Maputo, Mozambique.[2] The project is a smelting facility that began operations as a producer of aluminium exclusively for export. The smelter is located 20 km west of the city of Maputo in the south of the country.
Mozal was a joint venture between BHP Billiton (47.1 percent), Mitsubishi Corporation (25 percent), Industrial Development Corp. of South Africa (24 percent), and the Government of Mozambique (3.9 percent).[3]
The project began life in 1998 as part of a recovery programme led by the Mozambican government’s active desire for foreign investment to help rebuild the nation after the country's civil war in the early 1990s.[4] The Mozal smelter was officially opened in September 2000. It was the first major foreign investment in Mozambique and is the biggest private-sector project in the country.
Originally commissioned as a 250 ktpa (250,000 tonnes per annum) smelter, Mozal was followed by an extension (Mozal II) in 2003-04, and it is now the largest aluminium producer in Mozambique and the second-largest in Africa having a total annual production of around 580,000 tonmes. It is responsible for 30 percent of the country’s official exports and also uses 45 percent of the electricity produced in Mozambique.[5]
In February 2013, Mozal signed an agreement under which it would supply 50,000 tonnes of aluminium to Midal Cables, one of the world's largest manufacturers of aluminium cables.[6] Midal's factory in Mozambique started operation in 2014, with a capacity of 50 ktpa of aluminium rods and 24 ktpa of aluminium wire.[7]
BHP Billiton holdings were demerged into South32.[8] South32 currently owns 63.767%, Mitsubishi Corporation (through MCA Metals Holding GmbH), the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa and the Government of Mozambique share the remaining ownership interest.[9]
In March 2026, operations at Mozal were suspended. South32, the Mozambican government and South African power utility Eskom could not come to an agreement on electricity prices. [10]
External links
References
- Top 100 Companies in Mozambique KPMG, KPMG Moçambique, retrieved 2023-01-26^
- Mozal Overview Mozal, 2008^
- Aluminium and Nickel BHP Billiton^
- Aluminium Business and Regional Development Mitsubishi Corporation, 2012^
- Mark Tran. Mozambique smelting profits should not fill foreign coffers, say campaigners The Guardian, 8 January 2013^
- Mozal aluminium to be used in Mozambican industry AllAfrica, 2013^
- Midal Cables International Limitada – Mozambique Midal Cables, retrieved 25 March 2024^
- Demerger BHP, retrieved 2015-06-18^
- Ownership 2023 South32, retrieved 2023-01-23^
- Chinedu Okafor. Power dispute forces shutdown of Africa’s second-largest aluminium smelter Business Insider Africa, retrieved 11 April 2026^