the Mozambican government's active desire for foreign investment to
help rebuild the nation after the country's civil war in the early 1990s. 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 ton 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 tons. It is responsible for 30 percent of the country's official
exports and also uses 45 percent of the electricity produced in Mozambique. In February 2013, Mozal signed an agreement under which it will
supply 50,000 tonnes of aluminium to Midal, one of the world's largest
manufacturers of aluminium cables. Midal is to set up a factory in
Mozambique and use aluminium ingots produced at the Mozal smelter
as its raw material. This is the first time that aluminium produced by
Mozal will be used in Mozambique, as up until this agreement, Mozal exclusively exported its aluminium.
