Large mining companies must take responsibility for their activities in Mozambique, and that includes giving back to local communities. Mozambique Mineral Resources Minister Esperanca Bias said her country needed to properly benefit from extractive industries.
This year, Rio Tinto, the world’s second biggest mining company, was forced to write down the value of its coal reserves in Mozambique’s Tete province by $3 billion after the government prevented it taking coal, by barge, from the company’s mine down the Zambezi River. Instead, the government wants the miner to build a railway line to a new port at Macuse on the east coast.
See http://www.smh.com.au/business/mozambique-says-miners-must-give-as-well-as-take-20130520-2jwvk.html.