Imagining Booms and Busts: Conflicting Temporalities and the Extraction-“Development” nexus in Mozambique

Energy landscapes in Mozambique: The role of the extractive industries in a post-conflict environment

“…From 2011, major multinationals-Vale, Rio Tinto and India-based Jindal-were transporting coal from Moatize to Beira port, for overseas markets, through the Sena railway corridor (see Figure 2). Increasingly, traffic has shifted north to the Nacala Corridor, inaugurated in May 2017, along with the newly rehabilitated Nacala port (Wiegink, 2018). The Nacala Corridor, Vale's largest investment outside of Brazil (at US$4.4 billion), is envisioned as an 'integrated logistics corridor' linking northern Mozambique, southern Malawi and the Moatize coalfields-a new regional landscape.…”

“…During the boom period, stretching roughly from 2009 to 2012 (cf. Wiegink, 2018), Tete attracted a buzz of entrepreneurial activity to meet surging demand for accommodation, catering, transport, telecommunications and other services for expatriate workers and business visitors. However, efforts to encourage a diversified economic base outside the mining sector have since faltered (Wiegink, 2018).…”

“…The consequences of this conflict are still felt today. In 2013, Renamo began attacking government forces amid difficult negotiations over electoral processes and access to energy resource rents (Azevedo-Harman, 2015; Wiegink, 2018). Second, the unsuccessful economic policies of the post-independence regime, compounded by the 1980s structural adjustment programmes that followed, constrained Frelimo’s ability to invest in its modernization project (see Pitcher, 2002).…”

“…In many cases, the priorities of foreign investors and aid donors, which make up a significant portion of Mozambique’s state budget, led the way. The discovery of extractive energy resources has created opportunities for resource rents through major infrastructural and logistics projects (Castel-Branco, 2014; Hanlon, 2004; Wiegink, 2018). These energy resource rents have been increasingly captured by Frelimo-linked domestic business elites, who participate in various energy-related projects as shareholders and local partners for foreign investors (Macuane et al., 2018).…”

“…But these developments stalled amid plummeting global coal prices from 2013. Compounding this was the recognition of infrastructural gaps and resurgent political conflict in the central provinces (Azevedo-Harman, 2015; Wiegink, 2018). In 2011, Vale was joined by Rio Tinto, the UK-Australian metals and mining corporation.…”