Experts in the mining industry have emphasised the need to prioritise comprehensive environmental impact assessments before undertaking mining activities to ensure sanity.
They have also recommended enhancing efforts towards addressing existing mismatches between required skills and capabilities of graduates from local colleges.
This came out during the 6th edition of the Catholic University of Malawi (Cunima) conversation on mining sector trends on Friday.
One of the panelists, who is also Head of Geography and Environmental Studies, Sylvester Richard Chikabvumbwa, said Malawi needs to adopt advanced technologies for growth of the sector.
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Sovereign Services Limited Country Manager Maxwell Kazako, who was part of the panel, said human capital for the mining industry in Malawi is immature.
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He said specialised people from local universities were absorbed by neighbouring countries such as Mozambique and Zambia as Malawi has not been doing large-scale mining projects for nearly a decade after closure of Kayelekera mine.
“Malawi has to start over in developing expertise in our human resource in the mining industry in order to support large-scale mining. We are not saying we do not have the experts, we have the people, but there are kind of a few numbers,” Kazako said.
Director of Geological Survey Department in the Ministry of Mining Stanley Nyama said the reviewed Mines and Minerals Act of 2023 was addressing most of the issues that were hanging in the old law.
“I can confidently say that with the review of the legislation, we are ready for mining investment, especially large-scale mining operations in Malawi,” Nyama said.
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In an interview Monday, mining expert Grain Malunga said Malawi still has challenges with energy supply for large scale mining projects.
“We have made progress on electricity but it is not very stable and not fully available to support heavy industries. The Rural Electrification Program is basic as it uses low conductors that cannot support the mining sector,” Malunga said.
