Malawi has engaged the Centre for Energy, Petroleum, Mineral Law and Policy at Dundee University, in the UK, to train key staff at the Ministry of Mining in minerals law and policy.

Mining Minister John Bande says government felt such training is necessary, since Malawi is reviewing its mining law to make the country competitive and attractive to investors.
He says Malawi will continue to engage institutions of the UK centre’s calibre to build the capacity of its staff, as there is an acute shortage of skilled people in a number of fields.

“In some cases, the entire country may not have even one skilled person in a particular field. For example, the country has no mining lawyers, no petroleum geologists or geophysicists, no minerals economists, no experts in mining agreements drafting, let alone people skilled in negotiating mining agreements,” he says.

With funding from the World Bank, the European Union and the French and Japanese governments, Malawi is reforming its minerals sector, and this involves reviewing the regu- latory, institutional and fiscal frameworks to ensure that investing in the sector becomes simplified.

To this end, institutions responsible for regu- lating the sector will be restructured so that the lead times for the granting of mineral rights are minimised and the process is simplified.

“The mining cadastre system is being moder- nised to facilitate the granting of mineral rights,” says Bande.

The Malawi government has adopted a new mining policy, which emphasises attracting investors by simplifying the granting of mineral rights and ensuring the existence of transparent and stable fiscal and taxation regimes.

Meanwhile, with financing from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, Malawi’s Geological Survey Department (GSD) has established a geographic information system for mineral resources, which will ensure the availability of digital data to investors. “This is a very important project because, despite advances in technology, the GSD has been providing only analogue data to potential investors in the minerals sector. Most investors prefer digital data, which is easier to handle and work with,” says Bande.

Mining, which used to contribute less than 3% of Malawi’s gross domestic product (GDP) before the Kayelekera mine came on stream in 2009, now accounts for up to 12% of the country’s GDP.

It is predicted that mining will account for up to 30% of Malawi’s GDP by 2015 if big projects, such as the Kanyika niobium mine and the Kangankunde rare earths mine, start production.

The Malawi government is currently negotiating with Globe Metals & Mining, which has an exclusive prospecting licence for the Kanyika deposit, for a mine development agreement, while prospecting at Kangankunde by Australian firm Lynas Corporation was halted by a legal tussle pitting the Malawi government and the previous holder of the licence, which is challenging government for revoking its licence “without following legally accepted procedures”.