Portuguese multidisciplinary engineering group Mota Engil has launched a gold and base metals exploration programme in the Kirk Range area of central Malawi.


Mota Engil MD for Malawi 
operations Gilberto Rodrigues says the company was granted an 
exploration licence in 2008.

“The current exploration work 
involves drilling targeting 17 miner-
alised [areas] which have not been explored in detail by Malawi’s Geological Survey Department. The exercise, which is in its preliminary stages, indicates that Kirk Range has potential for base 
metals, and what we want to do is to identify those base metals that are in sizeable quantities.” 

Previous exploration pointed to the existence of gold, copper, 
uranium and platinum-group 
metals in the area.


Rodrigues says that Mota Engil, which started operating in Malawi as a roadworks contractor, has diversified into the mining and energy sectors. 


Mota Engil is also a mining contractor for Australia’s Paladin Energy, which owns and operates the Kayelekera uranium mine, in northern Malawi, where it was also involved in the construction of the mine. 


In the transport sector, Mota Engil, which is a contractor on a number of road projects in Malawi, is also constructing the Nsanje inland port, which is Malawi’s proposed port of call for the ambitious $6-billion Shire–Zambezi waterway project. 

The project will link landlocked Malawi to the sea by reopening the Shire and Zambezi rivers for navigation up to the proposed Port of Chinde, in Mozambique. 


Rodrigues says Mota Engil, which has signed an agreement with the Malawi government to manage the port for 40 years after construction, believes that the port and the waterway will 
assist in the development of other sectors of the Malawi economy, such as mining and agriculture, as it will reduce transport costs.

“Our investment in the waterway project makes economic sense because it will reduce transport costs and, consequently, facilitate investments in other economic sectors.

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