Kenmare starts plant upgrade to unlock Moma's giant Nataka ore zone

Kenmare Resources began commissioning an upgraded Wet Concentrator Plant A at its Moma titanium minerals mine in Mozambique in October 2025, a critical step toward unlocking the Nataka ore zone, which contains roughly 70% of Moma's nine-billion-tonne mineral resource base. WCP A is Kenmare's largest mining plant, and the upgrade is designed to let it operate profitably on Nataka's different ore characteristics.

A multi-decade resource

Nataka's scale means that successfully transitioning WCP A onto it would secure production from Moma for decades to come, extending the mine's life well beyond what its currently mined zones could support alone. Kenmare has said WCP A was scheduled to complete mining in the existing Namalope zone and begin transitioning to Nataka from mid-2026, a process expected to take about 18 months.

A ramp-up that has not gone entirely to plan

The transition has not been without difficulty: by the second quarter of 2026, Kenmare said WCP A had not consistently achieved its design nameplate throughput of 3,500 tonnes an hour, averaging closer to 2,800 tonnes an hour because of dredging performance issues. All major construction and installation work on the plant upgrade was nonetheless complete, with capital expenditure on the project declining as expected once the physical build was finished.

Why Nataka matters so much to Kenmare

With mineral sands prices weak through much of 2025 and 2026 — pressure that forced Kenmare to cut jobs and suspend its dividend in March 2026 — access to a resource as large as Nataka is central to the company's long-term investment case, offering decades of future mine life once the transition is complete. A successful, well-timed shift to Nataka would let Kenmare spread its considerable prior capital investment in Moma's infrastructure over a much longer production horizon.

What happens next

Kenmare's near-term priority is resolving the dredging performance issues limiting WCP A's throughput before the plant fully transitions onto Nataka ore, since any shortfall during the changeover would compound the pressure the company is already under from soft mineral sands prices.

Getting the transition right matters well beyond Kenmare's own balance sheet, since Nataka's scale means the ore zone will likely define the pace and shape of Mozambique's mineral sands exports for a generation.

Sources

• Mining Weekly: Kenmare starts commissioning of upgraded plant to unlock Nataka orezone at Moma, 08 Oct 2025
• GlobeNewswire: Q2 and H1 2026 Production Report, 16 Jul 2026

Photo: Moma district, Nampula province, Mozambique, home to Kenmare Resources' titanium minerals mine. Benildo André Waissone, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.