Matola
Mozambique's largest industrial asset — an aluminium smelter consuming half the nation's electricity — faces March 2026 shutdown over power pricing.
A single aluminium smelter consumes nearly half of Mozambique's electricity output. Matola, the country's second-largest city with over 1.2 million people, sits adjacent to the capital Maputo in southern Mozambique. Wikipedia barely distinguishes it from its larger neighbour. What it undersells is that Matola hosts the Mozal aluminium smelter — a $2 billion facility that at its peak generated 7% of Mozambique's GDP, produced $1.4 billion in aluminium exports (15% of total goods exports), and drew a constant 950 megawatts of power.
The electricity story is structurally absurd. Water falls at the Cahora Bassa dam in central Mozambique, generating hydroelectric power. Two-thirds of that power is exported to Eskom in South Africa. Eskom then sells electricity back across the border to Mozal in Matola. Mozambique generates the energy, exports it, and reimports it to power its own largest industrial asset. The arrangement worked when electricity was cheap. It no longer does.
South32, which holds 63.7% of Mozal, announced the smelter will enter care and maintenance around March 2026 after failing to secure an affordable power supply agreement. The tariff demanded was not internationally competitive. Drought in the Zambezi basin has reduced Cahora Bassa's output. South32 recognised a $372 million impairment, reducing Mozal's carrying value to $68 million. The facility employs 1,150 permanent workers and 1,200 contractors, supporting 21,000 indirect jobs. When it ceases operations, Matola loses its economic anchor.
The biological parallel is the termite mound. Termite mounds are the largest structures built by any non-human organism — consuming enormous energy to maintain internal climate control and supporting entire ecosystems of dependent species. When a mound is abandoned, the ecosystem restructures around the void. Mozal is Matola's termite mound: a structure so large it consumes half the nation's power and supports thousands of livelihoods. The mound is about to go dark, and nothing of comparable scale exists to replace it.