Aluminium
Smelting is a power business. Africa's largest smelters — Mozal in Mozambique and Hillside in South Africa — depend on long-term electricity supply.
Key data
- Unit
- tpa
- Value
- Pending verification
- As of
- Pending verification
- Value chains
- Bauxite → Alumina → Aluminium
- Leading African producers
- Mozambique, South Africa
Market signals
Related projects
Leading African producers
Mozambique
Mozambique combines world-scale offshore gas in the Rovuma Basin with graphite, heavy sands, coal and the Mozal aluminium smelter, making it one of Africa's most connected energy-to-industry economies.
South Africa
South Africa has the continent's deepest mining, metals and chemicals industrial base, and its energy agenda is dominated by Eskom's generation fleet, transmission capacity and the renewables procurement programme.
Related companies
Business opportunities
Value chains
Related industries
Related infrastructure
Cahora Bassa Hydropower
Zambezi hydropower plant supplying Mozambique's industry and exporting power into the Southern African Power Pool.
Nacala Logistics Corridor
Rail and port corridor serving coal, graphite and general cargo from northern Mozambique and Malawi.
Port of Maputo
Southern Mozambique deep-water port serving regional mineral, metal and agricultural exports.
Port of Pemba
Logistics base for offshore and onshore activity in the Rovuma Basin.
Related commodities
Bauxite
Guinea is the world's largest bauxite exporter; the strategic question is how much value is captured through domestic alumina refining.
Coal
South African thermal coal and Mozambican coking coal remain significant export earners and power-sector inputs.
Natural Gas & LNG
Africa's gas story runs through the Rovuma Basin, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria, and is increasingly evaluated on liquefaction capacity rather than reserves.
Graphite
Anode feedstock. Mozambique and Tanzania hold some of the largest natural flake graphite resources outside China.
Platinum Group Metals
South Africa's Bushveld Complex holds the largest platinum group metal reserves in the world and supplies the majority of global mined platinum, with Zimbabwe the second African source.
Gold
Ghana, South Africa, Mali, Tanzania and Burkina Faso anchor African gold output across large-scale and artisanal production.
Related news
Guinea presses for domestic alumina refining
Policy signalling continues to favour in-country value addition over raw bauxite export, with power supply the decisive constraint.
Government reaffirms sovereign guarantee to Mozambique LNG creditors
Mozambique's government has reaffirmed its sovereign guarantee to the lenders financing the Mozambique LNG project, as reported by Club of Mozambique.
Eskom energy availability reaches 68.2%, highest in six years
Eskom reports a financial-year-to-date Energy Availability Factor of 68.2%. Year-to-date diesel spend fell R4.87 billion (80.47%) to R1.18 billion, and the utility reports 5,695 MW of surplus capacity.
Eni to drill up to six wells offshore Mozambique for Coral North; third FLNG pursued
Reuters, via CNBC Africa, reports Eni plans to drill up to six wells for the Coral North project and is pursuing a third floating LNG unit in Mozambique.
Mozambique LNG works advance at Afungi as contractors remobilise
Operator communications point to renewed onshore activity on the Afungi site. Confirm scope, schedule and workforce figures directly with the operator.
Transmission capacity, not generation, now frames South Africa's renewables debate
Grid access constraints in high-resource provinces are the binding factor for new renewable capacity.
Related intelligence
From molecules to metal: can Mozambique convert gas into industry?
Mozambique's strategic question is not whether it can export LNG, but whether any of those molecules become domestic industrial capacity.
Country intelligence: Mozambique resource economy
Gas, graphite, coal, heavy sands and aluminium in one economy — and the infrastructure that determines whether they connect.
Why bauxite value addition keeps stalling
Alumina refining is capital-heavy and energy-intensive; the economics turn on long-term power price, not on ore availability.
African liquefaction capacity: what is actually under construction
Separating announced capacity from sanctioned, financed and physically progressing capacity across Nigeria, Mozambique and Egypt.
- South32
Mozal Aluminium
Last verified 26 Aug 2026Verified
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