The French government has granted Malawi €10-million for a geo-logical remapping exercise, which will be conducted as part of the Mining Governance and Growth Support Project, whose other financiers include the World Bank and the Euro-pean Union (EU).
The World Bank is putting up $25-million for the Mining Governance and Growth Support Project, while the EU is providing $5-million.
Malawi’s President Joyce Banda says the geological remapping will be conducted as a follow-up to an airborne geophysical exploration exer-cise that will be financed by the World Bank, also under the Mining Governance and Growth Support Project.
She says the Japan govern-ment has also joined forces with the other financiers and is working with Malawi’s Ministry of Mines.
She says her government hopes the remapping exercise will help attract more private investors to Malawi’s mining industry by making adequate information available to them. “The geological mapping information that this programme will generate will significantly enhance the mining profile of this country.”
The Malawi government has included mining among the five priority sectors that it is promoting in order to transform the country’s ailing economy.
Says Banda: “The economic hardships that we are currently facing emanate from the [fact that we have a] narrow economic base. “Agriculture – to be specific, tobacco – is our key foreign exchange earner. It would just take one bad crop season or poor world crop prices for our economy to be exposed to foreign-exchange-related economic shocks.
“As we all know, when the supply of foreign exchange dwindles, our industries, and indeed the entire economy, will suffer. “Mining, therefore, is specifi-cally targeted for its potential to generate foreign exchange.”
Before 2009, mining’s contribution to Malawi’s gross domestic product (GDP) was 3%, but it rose to 10% after 2010, thanks to the opening of the Kayelekera uranium mine in the northern district of Karonga.
Banda expects the mining sector’s contribution to GDP to increase to at least 20% by 2016 as projects such as the Kanyika niobium mine and the Kangankunde rare earths mine come on stream.
Apart from the geological remapping aspect, the Mining Governance and Growth Support Project will review the legal and regulatory framework to support the development of policies and legislation aimed at promoting artisanal and small-scale mining, as well as capacity building, besides others.
Ministry of Mines principal secretary Leonard Kalindekafe comments that the Mining Governance and Growth Support Project, especially the remapping aspect, is a welcome development for Malawi, which has been using outdated maps produced as far back as the 1950s, when the country was a British protectorate.
“It is a relief that funding has been [made available] for the remapping project because technology has changed over the years,” says Kalindekafe.