Mechanical diggers are hard at work in the yellowish landscape of the Moanda open-cast mine in Gabon.
This region located in the east of the central African nation contains as much as a quarter of known global reserves of the ore, according to the Compagnie Miniere de l’Ogooue (Comilog), a subsidiary of the French group Eramet which operates the site.
The silvery metal has gained star status thanks to its emerging role in rechargeable car batteries. As decarbonization goes into higher gear, Gabon’s economy could benefit from the metal boom.
“Here at Comilog, we have a policy which aim is to reach the target of 10 million tons in 2025”, Leod Paul Batolo, the director and CEO of the Comilog Group says.
“If we can take a reference date in 2017 for exp we extracted 4 million tons and today at the end of the year 2022, we will be able to achieve 7.5 million tons”, He adds.
“This is an important speed. Ramping up production enables us to position ourselves as the world leader, we are the world leader regarding manganese production”, Batolo concludes.
Manganese is an important raw material in the iron and steel industry as it is used for hardening steel and prevents it from rusting.
Comilog, which has operated the Moanda mine since 1960, says its operation has contributed to the national economy in various forms, stands at around $345 million per year.
Everyday giant jaws rip out manganese and then dump the ore into trucks with a crash.
“The daily target here remains to deliver 36,000 tonnes of manganese to our internal customers”, Olivier Kassibi, the manager of Moanda site reveals.
The mining company claims its activity has enabled the creation of nine thousand four hundred direct and indirect jobs.
A longstanding problem remains that Africa is typically used as a source of raw materials, and rarely for processing them into goods of higher value.
