The Malawi government says it is optimistic the results of a countrywide airborne geophysical survey currently under way will attract more foreign investors to the country’s largely underexploited mining sector.

Malawi contracted Canadian firm Sander Geophysics last year to conduct the survey.

The survey is being conducted as part of the Mining Governance and Growth Support Project, financed by a $25-million loan from the World Bank’s International Development Association and a €5-million grant from the European Union.

Ministry of Mining permanent secretary Leonard Kalindekafe says of the survey, which was officially launched by VP Khumbo Kachali in November: “In 1984 or 1985, the government of Malawi undertook countrywide geophysical surveys. Realising that data previously collected was inadequate since it [had been] collected at low resolution, we requested funding from the World Bank and the European Union to undertake this comprehensive countrywide airborne geophysical survey.”

Sanders Geophysics is working in conjunc-tion with the British Geological Survey, which is acting as a quality control supervisor.

Kalindekafe says Malawi expects to enormously benefit from the geophysical survey as it will allow investors to carry out follow-up exploration targeting specific areas identified in the survey.

He says the data obtained may also be used in environmental geology for delineating the location and extent of hazar-dous materials, such as water contamination by radioactive minerals.

Kachali said at the survey’s launch ceremony that the exercise was part of Malawi’s plans to develop its minerals sector in order to diversify its overdependence on agriculture, which accounts for up to 38% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), as the future of the main crop, tobacco, is looking gloomy owing to the antismoking lobby.

The contribution of Malawi’s mineral sector to the economy, which used to be less than 3%, rose to 10% in 2010, owing to the start of production at the Kayelekera uranium mine, in the north of the country, which is owned by Australia’s Paladin Energy.

Kachali said government hoped to see the contribution of mining to GDP increasing to 20% by 2016.