Mining & Trade News

UK Ambassador to Malawi Fiona Ritchie says the UK government is rallying behind Malawi in developing its mining sector particularly on critical minerals which are making headlines in light of the global technological advancement.

Ritchie told Mining and Trade Review in an interview on the sidelines of the delivery lab meeting organized by the Presidential Delivery Unit in Lilongwe that the UK will provide support to Malawi to ensure that the country’s critical minerals have more benefits to the people of Malawi rather just the investors.

He said: “The future of the entire global is green energy so we are interested in green energy solutions, that means security of global supply of critical minerals and Malawi’s critical minerals have a major role to play here.”

“The second objective is about UK and Malawi relationship and what we care much is Malawi’s future economic growth, prosperity and development, and UK treaty underscores that mining sector has the potential to transform Malawi.”

“The other thing is about resource curse which has affected many countries particularly in the sub-Sahara in Africa and also elsewhere, where the benefits of the country’s natural resources are not seen or felt the way they should be.”

“Governance is actually critical, there are so many stakeholders having genuine interest in the mining sector and, I think the aim here is bringing these people together so that they turn these agreements into actions and that is why UK program is supporting this delivery lab.”

  In a separate interview, Minister of Mining Ken Zikhale Ng’oma said though the direction is to move forward so that the country starts realizing ample benefits from the mining sector, there are bottlenecks that are hampering the sector’s growth that require multi stakeholder coalition to end them.  

Ng’oma also disclosed that his target is to see Malawi starting to substantially earning from the sector in six months from now.

He said: “There is a challenge in terms of movement of the raw materials due to poor infrastructure.”

“We also have disputes in our villages where when somebody secures a license the community claims that the land belongs to them. So we need to sensitize the community so that they should understand land laws. Anything underground is for the government and anything above the ground is for the community.”

Ng’oma also said influx of fake investors is another challenge where by some are coming in as middlemen with no potential of investing in the sector.

He said: “Some investors are coming to seek opportunities to go and market the minerals outside the country.”

“These are middlemen while we want serious and potential investors who can be with us from the beginning to the actual mining.”

The Ministry of Mining in collaboration with Presidential Delivery United (PDU) organised the three-day lab meeting aimed at trying to deliberate and find out some solutions and connection on how the sector can sustainably supply solutions to emerging issues hampering the sector.  

The meeting was also organized to find solutions on how mining projects can be supplied with enough energy understanding that mining requires adequate energy.  

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