The Mozambican authorities cancelled 18 mining licences in the first quarter of this year in the northern province of Nampula, because the operators concerned were considered dishonest.Cited in Friday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Esperanca Bias, said inspection of the mining areas led to the discovery of irregularities. The only measure that could be taken under the circumstances was to cancel the licences, she said.“Some operators who were granted licences for research and exploration are using the licences to extract and sell minerals”, she explained. “This deprives the state of funds, since they do not pay the sums due for the exercise of this activity”. Other operators, Bias added, are involved in fraudulent schemes, presenting her ministry with projects for values that do not correspond to the activity proposed. Thus a Chinese company had claimed it wanted to exploit titanium-bearing heavy sands, for a period of 15 years – but the investment proposed was only 30 million US dollars, and so the Ministry threw the proposal out.
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