By Emmanuel Chilemba:
Paramount Civils Limited has said its minerals exploration at Chizungulire Hill in Chiradzulu District is at an advanced stage.
Paramount Civils Limited Mining Engineer Fanny Maloya said samples of rocks were already taken for laboratory tests at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences.
She expressed optimism on the possibility of securing the actual mining licence, having, among other things, concluded its Environmental and Social Management Plan.
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Maloya said this on the sidelines of a District Full Council meeting where stakeholders presented exploration status reports.
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“The purpose of this meeting is to have stakeholders in the district be informed on what we have been doing and what we are intending to do in future.
“After exploration, we already know that we are supposed to go into the mining stage,” Maloya said.
Meanwhile, Senior Chief Ntchema called on the firm to conduct a thorough assessment of the affected households and compensate them accordingly.
He said once commenced, the mining would enhance economic activities in the area.
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“Foreign mining companies have been dominating in such projects, but now, I am glad to note that it is our Malawian company that has been given such a chance.
“We will be looking forward to honouring their licence obligations (once granted), and if they find other precious stones down there, it’s our expectation that they would let us know, as per their responses on the same,” Ntchema said.
Paramount Civils Limited applied for an exploration licence from the Department of Mines on October 3 2022, and it was granted on June 8 2023.
The exploration of the rock aggregates whose products are mainly used in civil construction projects dates back to November 2023.
Quarrying is used to produce rock aggregates in the country, and the subsector is classified as vibrant owing to the presence of vast outcrops of granitic rocks and high demand for rock aggregates from the civil construction sector.
Mining is one of the priority areas under the industrialisation pillar in the country’s effort to achieve the upper-middle income status by the year 2063.
