The Mozambican government this year plans to hold an auction to grant coal prospecting and mining licenses in the central province of Tete, the assistant national director for Mines, Geraldo Valoi said in Maputo.

Cited by financial news agency Reuters, Valoi said that through this auction Mozambique was leaving behind its previous method of granting mining licenses by priority of the interested parties that requested it by filling out an online form.

Valoi said that the auction model would be used for Tete province and that for other provinces, regardless of what would be mined there, the previous system would be kept.

He also noted that the current system was useful for those that plan to mine in an area about which there is no geological information, whilst the auction system for Tete province was intended to ensure that only certified companies with a development plan are chosen.

“Otherwise we would be in the hands of speculators that, having been granted a license because they asked for it first, have no other aim than to sell it on,” he said.

Noting that there are currently 1,600 prospecting and mining licenses, half of which for coal, Valoi said that many had been revoked, from a previous total of 5,000, after beneficiaries gave up on the projects or were unable to develop them. (macauhub)