Editorial
Locals must not be left out of Malawi’s mining revolution
September 17, 2024 / Marcel Chimwala
Very good developments are taking place in Malawi’s mining sector. A month ago, we saw the Malawi Government signing mine development agreements (MDAs) with Australian owned Lotus Africa to resume production at Kayelekera Uranium Mine in Karonga and Lancaster Exploration, a subsidiary of UK firm Mkango Resources, to kickstart rare earth mining at Songwe Hill in Phalombe.
The Government signed these MDAs after it had signed another MDA with Australia’s Globe Metals and Mining to carry out niobium mining operations at Kanyika in Mzimba.
In this edition, we have reported in the lead article that Lotus has secured first two uranium offtake arrangements for Kayelekera Mine.
We view these positive developments as the beginning of Malawi’s mining revolution, which will see several large-scale mines opening in Malawi as envisaged by the Government.
We, therefore, plead with Government and stakeholders to ensure that there is adequate participation of locals in these oncoming mining projects in order for the resources to substantially benefit Malawians.
We understand that there are provisions for local participation in the laws but believe that without strict enforcement of the laws, there is a great risk that Malawi can lose out on some benefits that could emanate from these projects.
We feel it is high time government and other stakeholders including civil society organisations and donor agencies invested in training members of the community in the potential large-scale mining areas in running businesses that will sell various essential commodities to the expected mines.
Small scale farmers in these areas should also be trained on best practices so that they are able to scale up production to sell their produce to the mines.
Tertiary institutions offering relevant courses should as well prepare their students to be able to work in these mines after graduating.
On top of that, these academic and research institutions need to join hands with local companies to explore ways to take part in local processing of these minerals so that a greater part of value addition is done in Malawi at a fair charge to the mining companies.
Malawi stands to lose out as a country if these mines will be run by foreign experts using imported equipment and consumables.
When these mines start operating, we should not blame the companies for employing many expatriates when we have failed to train locals in the roles taken up by the expatriates.
We should not blame the companies for importing agricultural produce when our small-scale farmers are failing to produce quality produce of required quantities.
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Rehabilitation:
The establishment of a stable and self-sustaining ecosystem, but not necessarily the one that existed before mining began. In many cases, complete restoration may be impossible, but successful remediation, reclamation, and rehabilitation can result in the timely establishment of a functional ecosystem.
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Remediation:
The cleanup of the contaminated area to safe levels by removing or isolating contaminants. At mine sites, remediation often consists of isolating contaminated material in pre-existing tailings storage facilities, capping tailings and waste rock stockpiles with clean topsoil, and collecting and treating any contaminated mine water if necessary.
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