Mining & Trade News

By Wahard Betha

The year 2022 will forever be ringing bells in the mind of Esnart Chilimba, an impoverished woman in the area popularly known as Mfulanjovu in Group Village Head Masenjere’s area, Traditional Authority Chanthunya in Balaka district.

2022 is the year Chilimba lost her 10-year-old son, Daniel, who fell into a trench filled with water which is about 50 meters away from her house.

The trench was abandoned by an unknown mining company believed to be owned by a Chinese national who came into the village looking for gemstones.

Chilimba narrates her ordeal: “On this day, I left home at around 4.00am to do business and came back at around 2.00pm. When I was approaching home, I saw the people at the dam.”

“Before getting there, I asked what happened because I sensed something. It is when I was told that Dan fell into the pit in the morning. I just threw away what I was carrying and rushed there because people were searching for him but they could not find the boy. Later on, he was found floating at the other side of the second dam.”

“We reported to police and they came with health experts who confirmed to us that he died of suffocation.”

“I still cry till today because I lost a son, I had hoped that one day would grow up and support me.”

Even though Chilimba together with the chief of the area reported the incident to the company owners, no any support was given to them with no representative of the company showing up at the funeral. 

With tears coming down her chicks, Chilimba said there is no compensation she can ask for that can be compared to the life of her son but only pleaded for well-wishers to fill the trenches to avoid similar cases occurring.

Chief Kamifa of the area told Mining and Trade Review that the Chinese investor came with two Malawians who were assisting him in negotiating with the community on issues they never fulfilled.

For instance, Kaimfa said the owner of the land where the mine is located demanded MK8-million compensation but the investor only paid MK500, 000. 

Kaimfa explained: “I received a report to say a certain Chinese national through two Malawians have found minerals and they have already agreed with the owner of the land. I asked them if they had already got approval from our Group Village Head Masenjere, the T/A or District Commissioner of Balaka because this could not be handled by me only without the knowledge of my seniors.”

“I went to introduce them to the T/A and GVH but for the DC of Balaka they went there alone,”

“Our concern dwelled on how they will mine the area, being close to houses and also in terms of rehabilitation after mining. The promised to respond to the concerns but never did.”

 “They just started mining and at first they were using people with hand held holes but later on we started hearing sounds of some heavy machinery. When we visited the site, we saw an excavator. We were told they had hired it to speed up the work as high-quality stones were at a depth.”

Kaimfa said after some months, the two locals who were working with the Chinese investor told the chiefs to write a letter listing developments they want as part of corporate social responsibility, which would be delivered to their boss.

The villagers submitted the letter but nothing was done, something which forced the community to ask the company stop mining until its promises to the community are fulfilled.  

Kaimfa said: “Consequently, they removed their equipment from the site during night leaving only an excavator which we tried to detain but later released it after learning that it was not the property of the Chinese investor as it was hired from another company.”

“The Chinese investor left the area unattended and we hear some reports that he is in Zambia. We reached out to the DC but we were told they are not unaware of the investor.”

A letter dated August 8, 2022 indicates that the local community wrote the invrstor to construct a health center, school blocks for standard 1 to 3 and drill boreholes.

Mining & Trade Review tried to interview Ministry of Mining and Balaka district officials to confirm the development but both parties told us that they are unaware of the investor.

In a related incident, two illegal miners died after being buried into in tunnel in which they were extracting gemstones in Group Village Headman Mponda in the same district.

Commenting on such incidents on Mining Review readers Forum, seasoned geologist and mining expert James Chatupa proposed the formulation of regulations for recording mining related accidents. 

Chatupa said: “I propose we should formulate mandatory regulations for recording mining and mineral exploration accidents, so that we can learn sensitise mining communities on how to minimize such tragedies.”

“This should be supplementary to the labour laws that we already have. That is what they have in the South Africa Customs Union countries.”

National Coordinator for Natural Resources Justice Network (NRJN), Kennedy Rashid concurred with Chatupa saying the country currently does not have an accessible database on mine accidents

“Indeed, we do not have a consolidated public database on mine accidents. I would recommend to have one even online,” said Rashid.

Despite numerous efforts by the Ministry of Mining to regulate the mining sector to ensure it benefits the country at large, illegal mining is still rampant in many districts across the country.

The story of Chilimba is one of several ills of this practice impacting impoverished people in mining areas while the mining investors are chewing riches of their soils in the world’s financial capitals.

Leave a Comment

Comments