Hello and welcome to Zitamar's Daily Briefing for Friday, 15 October 2026.

Mozambique's government has instructed conservation managers to map mineral deposits while a state commission considers redrawing protected areas. Prospecting rights have already been issued in the buffer zone adjoining the Niassa Special Reserve and close to Gorongosa National Park.

This is not simply a contest between mining and conservation. Mineral rights can be allocated to politically influential Mozambicans with little capital or mining capacity, who then bring in Chinese, South African or other foreign partners to finance extraction. Their principal contribution is access: to licences, officials and land that would otherwise be unavailable.

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Montepuez Ruby Mining provides the established model. Gemfields owns 75% of the company, while 25% belongs to Mwiriti, whose shareholders include senior Frelimo figure and liberation-war veteran Raimundo Pachinuapa. A locally connected company secured a position in what became one of the world’s most valuable ruby deposits; foreign capital and technical capacity followed.