Experts call for resumption of limestone mining at Changalume

By Bester Kayaye

Mining experts have called upon the Malawi government to award mineral rights to a private mining firm to conduct a fresh feasibility study at the closed Changalume limestone mine in Zomba to ascertain the possibility of resuming limestone mining.

After taking over Portland Cement which had a clinker factory at the site in a privatization deal, French multinational Lafarge declared that the resources at the site had been depleted and in 2004 donated the factory site to government to create a barracks.

But speaking in an interview with Mining and Trade Review, Former Director of Geological Survey Department (GSD) James Chatupa claimed that there was never a resource estimate done of the Changalume limestone deposit before closure implying that Lafarge only made its decision to close Changalume based on business fundamentals as it would have not made business sense for the company which has other bigger clinker plants in the region to have Changalume in operation other than just sourcing clinker from the neighbouring countries.

The Changalume clinker production started in 1960 by the Nyasaland Portland Cement Ltd and a railway was built from Lirangwe to Chingale to take the clinker to Blantyre industrial site for production of Portland Cement.

State owned Malawi Development Corporation (MDC) bought the company and formed Portland Cement Limited in 1974 before Lafarge bought Portland in 2001 and closed Changalume around 2004.”

Chatupa said: “No exploration work was done in the Changalume region. GSD mentioned this gap many times to MDC and Portland Cement Company engineers. There are limestone exposures from Chingale to Chinduzi which are probably extensions of the Changalume prospect.”

“The limestone mine and clinker plant provided work to many people in the Namadidi-Chingale villages. It is a densely populated region. Hence there is scope for future job creation if the clinker operation resumes.”

“There is no need to interfere with the barracks as down the escarpment there are potentially large limestone resources, there are opportunities to be taken up, So, let us move on and create employment opportunities.”

Historically, limestone is considered to be one of the resources forming pillars of industrialization aside from iron ore, sulphur, clay and rock aggregate.

Concurring with Chatupa’s sentiments, National Coordinator for Chamber of Mines and Energy Grain Malunga advised mining companies to conduct proper feasibility studies before making decisions to start or close a mine.

 Malunga said: “It is the only mode of understanding the potential value of your investment and profitability and availability of mineral reserves before investing.”

“Companies that are properly constituted follow business principles of resource value assessment for a return on the investment.   It is sad that most local companies avoid pro-investment studies and end up losing money and start blaming government for their failures.”

“Mining is a long term investment requiring three to seven years of resource assessment before you can think of exploiting your deposit for gains.”

However, Chairman for Cement Products Limited (CPL) Aslam Gaffar opined that Lafarge would have closed the mine because “the recovery rate on limestone mined at Changalume was only 30%  as they was too much intermingling with dolomite hence expensive.”

“However, I still think there was no valid reason to close and scrap the plant as good limestone could be ferried from Chenkumbi which is only 63 km away. Lafarge gets limestone from Chilanga, Zambia near Kafue which is far.”

But Lafarge Cement Geologist Hendrix Manyimba defended the French multinational’s decision saying the mine was closed upon proper consultations and calculations on its profitability as currently the firm imports clinker mainly from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

“The fact of the matter is that when Changalume was opening around 1961 there were estimated deposits for about 50 years. About eight years prior to its closure the quality had deteriorated so much to the extent that the company was blending the limestone with high grade limestone from Balaka,” Manyimba said.

He added that for those last eight years, drilling and blasting was a daily operation due to poor quality of reserves.

“By 2004, the only good limestone enough for less than five years was where the crushing plant was standing. Accessing this deposit meant relocating the plant and killing a natural river course and it proved more expensive and did not make any economic sense.”

According to the 2020 Malawi Annual Economic Report, Malawian companies have invested a lot in the manufacturing of cement and increased production capacity of cement from 210 500MT in 2019 to 243 075MT.

In 2011, CPL invested $50-million in a cement plant at Njereza in Mangochi, where it is also involved in limestone mining, cutting Malawi’s annual clinker import bill by up to $30-million.