A foreign company has found an iron ore deposit in the Ngunda region of Mozambique’s Tete province, with reserves that are expected to allow exploration for up to 100 years, radio station Rádio Moçambique reported citing the administrator of Moatize district.

Identifying the company as Capital Resource, which is Australian and British owned, administrator Manuel Guimarães said that exploration of the deposit was expected to begin in 2016 and announced that, as well as construction of a second factory for processing the re, a branch line would be built linking the region to the Sena railroad at the town of Moatize.

Noting that he did not know the details of the amount of ore in the deposit, Guimarães said that, although studies had yet to be concluded, “there is information that this is a large deposit and that Moatize may become the third or fourth place in iron ore production globally.”

Guimarães also told Rádio Moçambique that phosphate prospecting in the district was also at an advanced stage. (macauhub)