Mining & Trade News

The Ministry of Mining has pledged to continue supporting the Artisanal and Small scale Mining (ASM) sub-sector in the country to ensure that it adequately contributes to social economic development.

In her speech during the ASM Annual Mining Indaba in Lilongwe, Minister of Mining Monica Chang’anamuno said ASMs in the country play a major role of exploiting resources that would otherwise not have been commercially exploited by the medium and large scale mining investors. 

She said Government wants to address the challenges that the ASMs are facing including; low meaningful participation: Illegal mining operations and inadequate financial support.

“As part of the efforts of promoting local participation in the ASM sub sector, my Ministry has and is implementing a number of initiatives including formalisation of the ASMs into cooperatives. This financial year alone, the target is to train six groups and currently we have managed to train four groups out of six in good mining practices.”

“We worked hand in hand with Export Development Fund (EDF) to establish the structured market for buying gold and gemstones from small-scale miners, thereby providing readily available market.”

“We are also facilitating the construction of a salt production facility in Ngabu, Chikwawa district, however, inadequate financing and the recent tropical Cyclone Freddy are the main challenges to this initiative.”

Chang’anamuno said her Ministry is also working with the Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational Training Authority (TEVETA) to develop a curriculum which will be used to train the ASMs in the country’s technical colleges; and sought technical assistance from the Canadian Government, for development of the ASM policy.

She said the Ministry has also taken a stand in ensuring that there is transparency and accountability in the process of issuing licences.

Chang’anamuno said the Ministry is giving equal opportunities to all Malawians who are interested in investing in the mining sector including the women and youth and also ensuring that the system employs a first come- first serve policy.

She said: “All Malawians are eligible to apply for a licence for mining, exploration or buying and selling of minerals and all the applications for licences are scrutinized by a committee which recommends either to grant or not.

“My Ministry has a web-portal, known as mining cadastral portal, where everyone including all applicants or holders of licences are able to see the category of application, type of mineral(s) being applied for, location of the licence, size of the area of the licence, date of grant and expiry of a licence. This web-portal is accessible by everyone, for free, at any time and any place.”

“You may also wish to know that my Ministry is ascribed to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) standard through the Malawi EITI as a key reporting entity in the extractive sector, and I am proud to indicate that compliance by mining companies in terms of data disclosure on production and revenue has increased.”

“Additionally, the validation score for 2022 for the extractive sector reporting was at 80%. This achievement is an indication that the Ministry of mining is now being recognized as one of the most transparent and accountable Ministries.” 

Meanwhile, ASM licences can be accessed at an application fee ranging from K10,000 to K50,000 for Malawians and as one way of easing long distance traveling, all clients seeking to access payable services can pay their fees for various services through direct bank deposits at their location of convenience. 

However, the Minister expressed concern over the spreading of false information about mining in the country and asked the masses to consult the Ministry for verification of information before dissemination.

She said: “My Ministry has noted with great concern that some people spread only bad news about mining activities in the country.”

“I am not disputing the fact that there are instances where some people are involved in illegal mining operations. However, our concern is that many people do not take their time to ask for and obtain correct information from my Ministry on issues concerning mining operations.”

“Instead they spread false information through various communication platforms especially social media.”

“There have been instances where by my Ministry has come across a lot of information on the media and used public resources to carry out investigations based on what has been circulating in the social media only to find out that it is not true.”

“Surprisingly, many people take pleasure in spreading such false information but do not take an initiative to find out the truth of the matter from my Ministry.”

In his address, Coordinator for Chamber of Mines and Energy, Grain Malunga said the efforts to promote and develop the ASM sub-sector do not only depend on the Ministry but require multi-stakeholder approach.  

Malunga said to put to an end to some challenges being faced in the sub-sector, there is a need for proper coordination between Ministry of Mining, Ministry of Trade, Chamber of Mines and Energy and financial institutions.

The ASMs Mining Indaba was organized under the theme of ‘Promoting Local Participation and Investment in Mining.’

Leave a Comment

Comments