In recent years, the Mozambican economy has registered significant developments in the area of mineral and energy resources. In 2004, production and export of natural gas began in Pande and Temane, in Inhambane province. In 2007 the export of ores produced from heavy sands started in Moma, in Nampula province. In 2007, the government signed a mining contract with the Brazilian Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) for the exploration of large quantities of coal from Moatize, in the province of Tete.
Also in 2007, the government signed, with several multinational companies, oil exploration and production contracts, with particular emphasis on the Rovuma Basin area, in Cabo-Delgado province. The sector's legislative framework has also been improving. In 2007 the Assembly of the Republic (AR) approved new tax legislation for the mining and oil areas. According to a study presented at the Inaugural IESE Conference (Bucuane and Muelder, 2007), Mozambique has considerable amounts of natural resources, most of which have not yet been effectively exploited. And, based on this finding, the Government is determined to facilitate the extraction and export of its natural resources as quickly as possible, assuming that they will contribute positively to economic growth and poverty reduction.
Mozambique is indeed becoming a “new rich” in hydrocarbons, but the abundance of natural resources is not an automatic passport to prosperity. Many countries rich in natural resources remain extremely poor, despite having gone through long years of exploitation. This situation – the abundance of natural resources in close co-existence with slow economic growth and pockets of extreme poverty – is known as the “paradox of abundance”, or in other words, “the resource curse”.
