Good afternoon. Another opportunity for Japanese investment in energy in Mozambique, that we didn’t consider yesterday, is in the growing industry of producing batteries. Japan is the home of major battery producer Panasonic, a partner of Tesla and Toyota in battery production in the US and Japan.
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Mozambique in turn is a major producer of graphite, a key ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles. The biggest miner in Mozambique, Australia’s Syrah Resources, sends graphite from Cabo Delgado to an anode factory it has established in Louisiana, US.
Zitamar asked Syrah in 2020 why they hadn’t set up that factory in Mozambique; a company spokesperson at the time said they had chosen the US primarily due to “access to low cost power and hydrofluoric acid,” as well as “co-location and proximity to potential customers.” He said, however, that Syrah “will continue to assess the feasibility of doing the battery anode material beneficiation steps in Mozambique.”
