Bad weather cut production at a heavy sands mine in northern Mozambique

Kenmare Resources, a heavy sands exploration company in Mozambique, announced this Thursday that it will produce half of its planned 2023 ilmenite production due to damage caused by bad weather in the north of the country.

“While Kenmare is working hard to recover lost heavy mineral concentrate production, ilmenite and rutile production is expected to be in the lower half of the 2023 guidance range,” the company said in a statement released this Thursday.

Kenmare has set its 2023 ilmenite production target in the range of 1,050,000 to 1,150,000 tons, after hitting 1,088,300 tons the previous year, according to data released by the company in January.

This is the impact of damage caused by lightning that struck power lines near the mine in early February, overloading lightning protection systems and damaging at least two conductors of the power line, as well as other electronic equipment in the mine.

“This was a highly unusual event that had never happened before in Kenmare’s 15 years of operation. Mining operations were seriously disrupted during the maintenance work,” the company said in a statement.

“Kenmare is working to identify and mitigate the impact of operating and capital costs resulting from downtime,” the note adds.

Kenmare is one of the world’s largest mineral sand producers, listed on the London and Dublin Stock Exchanges. Production is located in the city of Moma in the province of Nampula in northern Mozambique, which accounts for approximately 8% of the world’s production of titanium raw materials.

The company serves customers in over 15 countries who use heavy minerals in paints, plastics and ceramics.