Mozambique’s President Daniel Chapo has signed a sweeping mining law requiring a mandatory 15% state ownership stake across all mineral ventures and a strict ban on raw exports.
The legislation overhauls a decade-old framework to capitalize on skyrocketing global demand for electric vehicle battery components, specifically targeting the nation’s world-class graphite deposits.
The state will secure its non-dilutable, free-carried equity through the National Mining Company, forcing private operators to establish domestic refineries and local processing infrastructure.
Furthermore, mining companies must now divert 10% of gross revenues to local development funds and allocate 20% of physical production to supply emerging domestic industries.
This aggressive legislative pivot mirrors a broader wave of resource nationalism reshaping Africa, with regional powers like Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo enforcing similar raw export bans.
The regulatory shift poses major questions for current foreign operators regarding whether existing long-term concessions will be retroactively subjected to these strict processing rules.
