Maputo, July 16, 2025 (Lusa) - Aluminium production at Mozal, Mozambique’s largest industry, increased by 12% until March, and the multinational seeks reliable energy supply alternatives ahead of the current contract’s end in March 2026.
In financial information that Lusa consulted on Wednesday, with data up to the end of the first quarter and accumulated over the previous nine months, South32, an Australian-based mining company that owns the smelter, reported that Mozal’s saleable production increased 12% year-over-year to 265,000 tonnes of aluminium.
The growth resulted from the recovery of activity through the plan to “mitigate the impacts of civil unrest” in Mozambique at the end of 2024, following the general elections in October.
"Operating conditions in Mozambique improved during the 1 March 2025 quarter, allowing the smelter to approach nominal production rates to end the period," the information adds, noting that the forecast for fiscal year 2025 production “remains unchanged at 350,000 tonnes” of aluminium from the plant in Boane, near Maputo.
It stressed, however, that it continues to work with South African electricity company Eskom and the Mozambican government “to extend the smelter’s hydroelectric power supply beyond March 2026, because the parties are currently identifying viable alternative suppliers of renewable energy on the scale required.”
“We remain focused on finalising a new power supply agreement during the 2025 calendar year to enable the smelter to continue operating and maintain its substantial contribution to Mozambique’s economy,” South32 added.
Mozambique’s government announced on Tuesday that it would guarantee energy supplies to Mozal, with plans to have the state-owned Eletricidade de Moçambique (EDM) provide that guarantee.
“It is in our interest that Mozal continues to have sufficient energy (…) It is also in the government’s interest that the energy supplier who supplies energy, becomes EDM,” said the cabinet spokesman, Inocêncio Impissa, adding: “Today, we contract directly and what we want is to introduce the ‘player’, which is EDM, which is the entity responsible for marketing the energy produced by our hydroelectric plant [in Cahora Bassa - HCB]. And some details need to be finalised for this purpose.”
South Africa’s Eskom supplies electricity to Mozal, and Eskom, in turn, buys energy from HCB, which accounts for 66% of the total produced in 2024. This facility operates in central Mozambique. Meanwhile, Mozambique’s government intends to reverse this scenario.
The Mozambican president confirmed on 23 June 2030 that he will proceed with the energy reversal process, concluding the contract for the supply of electricity produced in Mozambique to Eskom, which has been in effect since 1979.
“In 2025, in addition to implementing rehabilitation projects, HCB, looking ahead to the energy reversal planned for 2030, when Mozambique will take control of its energy generation as the contract with Eskom ends, should consolidate its role in Mozambique’s energy development,” said Daniel Chapo, confirming the intention that the previous government had already signalled.
Lusa reported in February 2024 that Mozambique’s government intends to “repatriate” from 2030, for domestic use, the electricity it has been exporting from HCB to South Africa since 1979, as stated in the Energy Transition Strategy in Mozambique until 2050. The document sets this goal for 2030: “The main short-term water priority is repatriating electricity from HCB, which South Africa currently imports (8-10 terawatt-hours), and adding 2 gigawatts of new national hydroelectric capacity by 2031.”
Eskom supplies electricity to the Mozal aluminium plant, located on the outskirts of Maputo in southern Mozambique, and this supply contract also expires in 2026. Mozal relies on 900 megawatts to meet its electricity needs, and the parties have arranged this arrangement to account for the progressive expansion of the Mozambican electricity grid.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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