Mining & Trade News

Malawi President His Excellency Dr Lazarus Chakwera has officially inaugurated the Kayelekera Uranium Mine in Karonga marking the restart of the mine, which was placed on care and maintenance in February 2014 by the previous operator Paladin Africa due to a sharp decline in prices of the yellow cake on the world market.

ASX-listed Lotus Resources, who currently runs the mine, said in a statement that the official opening of the mine by the President demonstrates the tremendous support of Kayelekera by the Government of Malawi.

Lotus Managing Director Greg Bittar commented: “We were honoured to welcome His Excellency, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi, to preside over the official inauguration of the commissioning and restart of the Kayelekera Uranium Mine. His Excellency, the Government of Malawi, the traditional authorities of regions around Kayelekera and the local communities, have all been pivotal in this achievement.”

“We continue to make terrific progress in commissioning the plant and increasing mill throughput, and we are on track to achieve steady state 200,000lbs per month - 2.4M lbs per annum - production in early CY2026.”

“Beyond the mill, the extensive commissioning work that the team has completed throughout the processing plant with the processing of high-grade ore over the past 14 days means we now have uranium inventory ready for the last stages of precipitation, drying and packaging. Final plant commissioning, focused on control system automation of the drying and packaging circuit, is being completed.”

“We have ramped up the work on the tailings storage facility infrastructure to form the foundation for future lifts to accommodate the 10-year life of mine.”  

The inauguration ceremony was also graced by Malawi’s Minister of Mining Honourable Dr Kenneth Zikhale Ng’oma, other Cabinet Ministers, Royal Highness Paramount Chief Kyungu and traditional leaders of Karonga and Chitipa, and many other distinguished guests.

This ceremony acknowledged the tremendous commitment of the Government of Malawi, the traditional leaders and regional communities in supporting Lotus Africa and the Project as the Government looks to unlock the value of this country’s natural resources for the benefit of all Malawians.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chakwera hailed Lotus for working with speed to resume production at the mine, and stressed the importance of the mine to the economy of the country.

“The Malawi Government fully supports the Kayelekera Uranium Mining Project as Mining is key to the country’s growth strategy, Malawi 2063, and my government’s economic development strategy, Agriculture, Tourism, Mining and Manufacturing (ATMM),” he said.

The President also urged stakeholders to desist from political manipulation, which may impact continued operations of the mine.

Minister of Mining Dr Kenneth Zikhale Ng’oma assured Malawians that the mine will adequately benefit the country saying the Mining Development Agreement (MDA) that the Malawi Government signed with Lotus has created a win-win situation between the Nation and the Company.

“We have improved the MDA from the previous one we signed with Paladin to ensure that Malawi gets ample benefits from the mine,” he said.

Paramount Chief Kyungu of Karonga and Chitipa Districts commended Lotus for signing a Community Development Agreement for Kayelekera, and urged the Company to ensure that it fulfills all commitments made in the agreement.

“As Chiefs, we want all the community development projects outlined in the Agreement to be implemented since the mine is now productive,” he said.

Restart performance on track with uranium ready for precipitation  

Bittar explained in the statement that operations at Kayelekera continue to ramp up with the milling circuit performing in line with recommissioning expectations. Throughput rates are steadily increasing as expected in the planned ramp-up program.

“Consistent with the planned use of mined ore stockpiles to restart production ahead of switching to freshly mined ore in Q4 of CY 2025, ore stockpile re-handling commenced on 31 July 2025. Ore feed rates and grades for the early stage of production are comfortably meeting expectations.”

“We will continue to utilise about 300 000 tons of stockpile ore, representing about 3 months of mill feed, until mining commences.”

Following the commencement of processing of high-grade ore, leaching and reagent dosing into the circuit to initiate and sustain uranium extraction as announced previously, the following key milestones have now been achieved:

•  Resin transfer to elution: Loaded resins have been successfully transferred from the resin-in-pulp (RIP) circuit to the elution circuit, which is now charged and ready for production runs; and
• Eluate transfer to precipitation circuit: The first transfer of eluate to the precipitation circuit has been completed, enabling the next stage of uranium recovery.

“As of the date of this announcement, ~1,500 kgs of uranium (equivalent to approx. 3.5klb U3O8) had been eluted and is ready for precipitation,” Bittar said.

Tailings Storage Facility progress

The Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) embankment raises are planned across six phases over the life of mine period. Phase 1 has been sub-divided into Phase 1A and Phase 1B. Phase 1A involves a top hat raise of the north embankment, profiling of the west embankment and lining the downstream perimeter of the TSF. Phase 1B involves the widening of the north embankment to its full life of mine footprint to support the subsequent future lifts in Phases 2 to 6. The design is in compliance with Australian National Committee on Large Dams – Guidelines on Tailings Dams (ANCOLD 2019) and aligns with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM 2020).

TSF works for Phases 1A and 1B involving the initial embankment raise, lining and widening are well underway.  

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