Maputo — The Dutch based company AMG (Advanced Metallurgical Group) announced on Wednesday that it has been granted a fifteen year mining concession for an open pit graphite mine and processing plant at Ancuabe in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.

Graphite was mined in Ancuabe between 1992 and 1999, but operations were suspended due to the high cost of running electricity generators. However, the situation changed two years ago with the expansion of the national electricity grid, based on the Cahora Bassa dam, to Ancuabe.

AMG’s Vice President of Corporate Development and Corporate Communications, Jonathan Costello, told AIM “we have been on the ground for some time and are pleased with the progress made. We are still making progress with the detailed engineering and feasibility studies”.

Costello highlighted the good cooperation between the company and the Mozambican authorities, and said that AMG is now carrying out an environmental impact assessment.

AMG hopes at full production to mine 6,000 tonnes of medium flake graphite concentrate per year, using a simple process based on international industry standards.

Depending on the quality of the graphite, medium flake graphite sells for about two thousand US dollars a tonne.

Earlier this year AMG bought the German multinational Graphit Kropfmuhl, and took over responsibility for the Ancuabe mine.