The China Geological Survey Bureau’s Tianjin Survey Center says it has sent two experts to Mozambique to do research there as part of a Sino-African co-operative effort.

The centre issued a written announcement saying the visiting experts met Mozambique’s Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy officials, Chinese diplomats and representatives of Chinese mining companies operating in Mozambique, to ascertain their various needs in the field of geological surveying.

The announcement released on Monday says China and Mozambique are beginning this year a joint survey of deposits of tantalum and zirconium in Mozambique and Tanzania, which will take until 2022.

The mission undertaken by the Chinese experts may have mutually beneficial results for China and Mozambique, and be of use to Chinese mining companies in Mozambique, the China Geological Survey Bureau’s Tianjin Survey Center announcement says.