Mining & Trade News

Kasiya Rutile - Graphite Exploration Project

The project which is located in Kasiya in Lilongwe District is owned by ASX-listed resources group Sovereign Metals, which roped in world mining giant Rio Tinto as its strategic partner.

Latest Developments

Sovereign Metals has successfully completed mining trial stage of its Pilot Mining and Land Rehabilitation Program at Kasiya. Hydraulic mining trials at Kasiya were successfully concluded as part of the Kasiya Optimisation Study. Prior to the hydraulic mining trials, a dry mining trial successfully excavated a test pit to a depth of 20 metres. The mining trials confirm that the soft, friable Kasiya ore can be efficiently mined. Following the conclusion of mining trials, land rehabilitation demonstrations were conducted commencing with the backfilling of the test pit.

On September 28, 2023, the Company released results of Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) which confirmed Kasiya as potentially a major critical minerals project with an extremely low carbon footprint delivering major volumes of natural rutile and graphite while generating significant economic returns.

The results indicate that the proposed large-scale operation will process 24 million tonnes of ore per annum to produce approximately 245kt of natural rutile and 288kt of natural graphite per annum once at steady state.

Kasiya is the largest natural rutile deposit and second largest flake graphite deposit in the world.

Both rutile and graphite are critical to the world economy as well as crucial to decarbonisation solutions required to meet “Net-Zero” and other targets set by policymakers worldwide.

Kayelekera Uranium Mining Project

The project is located at Kayelekera area in Karonga District.  It is owned by ASX Lotus Resources which has an 85% interest in the project while the remaining 15% is owned by the Government of Malawi. Lotus acquired the major stake in Kayelekera in March 2020 from another Aussie firm Paladin Energy.

Latest Developments    

Kayelekera restart continues to progress as planned, with first uranium production on track for third quarter of 2025.

Lotus last year signed a Mine Development Agreement (MDA) with the Malawi Government and is fast-tracking preparations to start mining in light of the soaring uranium prices on the global market.

The Company completed a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) which confirmed Kayelekera Uranium Mining project as one of the lowest capital cost uranium projects globally whilst also having the ability to quickly recommence production.

Kangankunde Rare Earths Project

The project located at Kangankunde Hill in Balaka is owned  by ASX-listed Lindian Resources.

Latest Developments

Lindian is fast-tracking work at Kangankunde to move into mining stage. It has just announced that early-stage site works have officially commenced, which is a key milestone in the delivery of one of the world’s most significant undeveloped rare earth assets.

Following on from the start of construction of a new 5-kilometre access road in February 2025, the Company has commenced initial civil and infrastructure development.

The Company published a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) which established Kangankunde as one of the world’s largest rare earths projects pegging the rare earth resource at 261-million tonnes averaging 2.19% Total Rare Earth Ore (TREO) above a 0.5% TREO cut-off grade.

The Kangankunde deposit contains excellent grade, uniquely non-radioactive material and a high percentage of rare earth elements that are key to the clean energy transition. Lindian also released a feasibility study on the Stage 1 development. Results of the study showed that the Kangankunde Project is technically and financially robust and can deliver attractive future financial returns.

The feasibility study now paves the way for Lindian Resources to secure financing (US$40M pre-production capital cost) for the Stage 1 Kangankunde Project development.

Kangankunde is now firmly established in a class of rare earths projects that are regarded as the very best in the world as defined by scale, grade and the quality of resources.

Songwe Hill Rare Earths Project

The project is located at Songwe Hill in the Southern District of Phalombe. It is owned by Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange and the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange listed UK firm Mkango Resources through its subsidiary Lancaster Exploration.

Latest Developments

Mkango is currently conducting front-end engineering design for the project. After 13-years of mineral exploration investment amounting to over US$30-million, Mkango Resources signed a Mining Development Agreement for Songwe Hill with the Malawi Government.

The Company announced exciting results of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the project which pegged the net present value (“NPV”) for the project at US$559.0-million post-tax, using a 10% nominal discount rate, with an internal rate of return (“IRR”) of 31.5%, payback period of 2.5 years from full production (5 years from start of capital expenditure) and post-tax life-of-operations nominal cash flow of $2.1 billion.

Songwe is now confirmed as one of the very few REE projects globally to have reached the DFS stage, with a full Environmental, Social, Health Impact Assessment (“ESHIA”) completed in compliance with International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards and The Global Industry Standard for Tailings Management (2020) (“GISTM”) adopted for design and management of the tailings storage facility.

The project is targeting rare earths such neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium which are critical for the green transition, used in permanent magnets for electric vehicles, wind turbines and many electronic devices.

The DFS results show that Songwe Hill will have a long operating life of 18 years, with average production of 5,954 tonnes per year total rare earth oxides (“TREO”) for the first five years of full production, including 1,953 tonnes per year of neodymium and praseodymium oxides, and 56 tonnes per year of dysprosium and terbium oxides, in a mixed rare earth carbonate (“MREC”) grading 55% TREO, generating nominal earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$215 million per year.

Tundulu Rare Earths Exploration Project

The project is owned by ASX-listed DY6 Metals through its subsidiary Green Energy Exploration and involves exploration for rare earths and phosphate in Tundulu, Phalombe.

Latest Developments

DY6 has announced exciting results for its exploration work for rare earths and phosphate at Tundulu.

The firm collected a total of 63 metallurgical samples from 37 sample locations along high-grade historic trench (TUTR10) at Tundulu.

The sampling results returned up to a high of 3.35% Total Rare Earth Ore (TREO) and 27.5% Phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) over the sampled 83m length of trench TUTR10. An exciting component of the sampling results is the average HREO, being 13% of the TREO basket.

Undetectable to very low levels of deleterious elements including mercury, lead and cadmium in the phosphorus (P) rich rocks confirms the exceptional grade quality of the phosphate at Tundulu; and the sampling is representative of the mineralised Bastnaesite and Apatite carbonatite rock types exposed within the trench.”

DY6 is also conducting rare earths and niobium exploration at Salambidwe in Chikwawa and Ngala Hills in Balaka. The Company completed an airborne geophysical survey for Salambidwe as part of the exploration process.

Kanyika Niobium Project

The project is located in Kanyika in Southern Mzimba. It is owned by ASX-listed Africa focused resources group Globe Metals and Mining.

Latest Developments

Globe Metals last year signed a Community Development Agreement with the community in Kanyika.  

The Company last year signed a Mine Development Agreement with the Malawi Government and is scouting for off-take partners.

Globe finalized feasibility studies at Kanyika which is a multi-commodity deposit containing niobium, tantalum, uranium and zircon.

The project will produce high purity niobium pentoxide and tantalum pentoxide powders which will be used as additives to steel to enable steel mills to produce high-margin products through enhanced flexibility, weight reduction and strength.

Globe is in the process of setting up a refinery to process the Kanyika ore in Lilongwe which will play a big role in job creation and skills transfer.

Chambe Basin Rare Earths Project

The project is located in Chambe Basin area in Mulanje Mountain, and is owned by local firm Akatswiri Mineral Resources.

Latest Developments

Akatswiri has completed Phase 1 drilling program as part of rare earths exploration. The Company is now waiting for the drilling results as the samples extracted from the site are being processed at a laboratory in Perth, Australia.

The Company is confident of coming up with exciting results because rare earth mineralisation is visible in all the samples.

Chambe is a unique rare earths deposit as it is an ionic clay deposit. These deposits generally have several advantages over hard rock deposits, including lower operating and capital costs and shorter timelines for development.

Chambe is one of the few large ionic clay-hosted rare earth elements (REE) deposits outside of China, where currently a significant portion of global REE production is sourced.

The Chambe basin has a central part that has recessively weathered soils that are up to about 15 m thick containing REE’s of the ionic adsorption.

Akatswiri’s tenement area has also 30 million tonnes proven bauxite resource and the Company has conducted a review of previous feasibility studies which has established the mining of bauxite as feasible taking into account current technological and market developments.

  Tengani Titanium Project

The project is owned by a local firm Crown Minerals.

Latest Developments

Crown Minerals is conducting technical studies while scouting for strategic partners to launch mining works.

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