JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has increased its shareholding in Mozambique’s Mozal Aluminium to 32.45%.

Prior to this transaction, the State-owned IDC held 24% equity in the hydropowered aluminium smelter, which is located 20 km west of Maputo, in Beluluane industrial park.

IDC partnered BHP Billiton, now South32, Mitsubishi and the Mozambican government to establish Mozal in 1998.

Not long after the smelter opened in late 2000, expansion plans were already underway to double its capacity.

Currently, exposure to metals such as aluminium, which are important to the world's low carbon future, is attracting investor interest.

Last year, South32 exercised its pre-emptive rights to acquire an additional 8.445%, which has increased its shareholding to 63.7%.

Mozal has grown into one of the largest contributors to Mozambique’s export earnings and its biggest industrial employer, “providing good returns on our investment, but most important for us has been the socio-economic development impact of this project on the local people,” IDC CEO TP Nchocho stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

Driving sustainable industrialisation and decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries forms part of IDC’s strategy and its investment in Mozal aligns with this strategy.

To support the development of the downstream aluminium industry in Mozambique, a portion of liquid metal is supplied to Midal Cables, a local company that sells products in the domestic and export markets.

As reported by Mining Weekly in January, South32 is working on options to secure green electricity at Hillside Aluminium smelter in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.

Hillside has bottom-quartile carbon intensity compared with hydropowered Mozal’s top-quartile position.

Hillside accounts for a high 58% of the Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions of the four aluminium operations that South32 runs owing to its carbon-intensive electricity consumption and is in need of significant greening.