Mining & Trade News

Artisanal and small scale miners (ASMs) have urged authorities to put in place measures that will facilitate that they develop their businesses in order to graduate into mechanized medium or large scale mining.

Mining & Trade Review established in random interviews with ASMs that despite continued discovery of minerals in many parts of the country, local miners are not substantially benefiting because of lack of expertise, proper equipment and start-up capital.

Mylord Jere, a gold miner at Chimbiya Village in Traditional Authority Wimbe’s area in Kasungu, laments that despite that the area has potential for gold mining, he is failing to expand his business due to limited capital.

Jere, who runs a firm called Angoni Mining Company, also urged the Ministry of Mining to expedite processing of mineral licenses so that ASMs are able to easily acquire licences.

Said Jere: “It is through empowerment of local miners that Malawi can develop other than only relying on foreign investors.”

“If we, small scale miners, access capital and develop our operations, we will employ more Malawians hence contribute significantly to the government’s job creation agenda besides generating foreign exchange through the sale of minerals.”

“With the potential that the mineral sector has, it is sad that we are complaining of lack of forex. What is needed is to empower locals through provision of training opportunities and start-up capital to develop their businesses.”

Jere said with adequate capital, gold miners can benefit by procuring gold detectors which can help in identifying the minerals and mine other than just panning ignorantly as is the current scenario where by the process is labour intensive with minimal gains.

He said: “If Malawians can get machines and adequate start-up capital, they can go deeper in search of minerals rather than waiting for the stones to be washed to the surface by water. We are losing a lot because we do not go deep enough. To make matters worse we are not even aware of the real origins of the gold so it is like we are just groping in the dark.”

Administration and Marketing Manager at Maleta Gems and Jewels Ashley Simbeye commented in a separate interview that there is need for government to lobby cooperating partners and the financial sector to support small scale mining activities like it is doing in other economic sectors such as agriculture where by government is implementing the Agricultural Commercialization project to facilitate that small scale subsistence farmers graduate into commercial farmers.

“Many ASMs live a hand to mouth life. This needs to change if the country is to develop with mining as one of the key economic drivers as stipulated in Malawi 2063. If ASMs can get proper financing and expertise, I believe mining can compete with agriculture in raking in forex,” said Simbeye.

Simbeye also advised the ASMs to acquire relevant training on the trade from her institution in order to understand the true value of gemstones so that they are able to sell at a profit. 

“At Maleta Gems, we train artisanal miners on how to cut, polish, grade and know the value of each gemstone just by looking at it. Minerals come in different forms and colours and if you are not careful you can lose precious resources through wrong identification,” she said.

Minister of Mining Monica Changa’namuno said during the opening of the ASM Indaba in Lilongwe in December last year that government is doing all it can to empower ASMs as one way of taking many Malawians out of the poverty.

“The fact that we have minerals all over the country should be good news to all because we cannot just be relying on agriculture to bring in forex. We will continue engaging all stakeholders involved in the mining sector including banks to see how ASMs can get financing easily.” said Chang’anamuno.

Malawian banks shy away from lending money to ASMs because they consider the mining sector as risky.

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