By Mbauwo Chavula
When the Coal and Minerals Group (CMG) opened a mine at Kasantha in Karonga district in 2018, it made big promises.
In meetings before the project broke ground, the company told residents that it would repair and build teachers’ housing for two of the area’s primary schools, improve roads, and provide potable water.
Until April 2026, residents had little to show for the company’s promises, except coal dust and polluted rivers.
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On April 15 2026, the Malawi Environmental Protection Authority (Mepa) and the National Water Resources Authority fined CMG K14.5- million (about US$8,300) in administrative penalties for six environmental violations: water pollution and uncontrolled discharge of effluent; absence of a waste management plan; failure to have an environmental and social management plan; operating a loading bay without approval; poor site design and engineering controls; and the absence of safety and emergency systems.
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The company was also ordered to immediately cease its uncontrolled discharge of effluent and to install treatment facilities.
In a statement responding to the sanctions, Brian Mwangonde, administrator for CMG, said the company would comply with the order.
During Oxpeckers visit to the area on May 2026, residents said both the waters of the Kasantha and Changwina rivers and the air were now far cleaner after the government’s intervention. Repairs to the schools were also finally underway.
Untapped mineral resources
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Mepa first penalised the project in 2022, fining it for similar violations. The recent, harsher sanctions came at a time when the government is eyeing the country’s largely untapped mineral resources as a potential revenue source.
Tobacco, long the southern African nation’s cash crop, is no longer in high demand and authorities hope that mining – particularly for rutile and graphite, two minerals that are critical to a number of industries, including in the renewable energy sector – can fill the financial gap. The Chamber of Mines projects that mining will contribute 12 percent of the country’s GDP by 2027; the current figure is roughly 1 percent.
But small-scale artisanal miners and ordinary Malawians worry that, without strong regulation and oversight, the rush for minerals could bring severe environmental and human consequences. Some communities are already fighting back.
Protected area
One such fight-back is happening in the shadow of Mulanje Mountain. At more than 3,000m above sea level it is the highest mountain in tropical southern Africa.
In July 2025, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation officially listed the Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage Site, calling it a “reflection of the spiritual and ecological harmony between people and nature”. Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve was created and gazetted as a protected area in 1927.
Today almost one million people depend on Mulanje Mountain for their livelihoods. Water from it is piped into the surrounding villages, whose residents farm on and gather firewood from the reserve. Many local young men work as porters and guides for tourists who come to scale the mountain.
Now local mining firm Akatswiri Mineral Resources wants to turn the mountain’s Lichenya and Linje plateaus into a mine for bauxite, the world’s main source of aluminium which is used in, among other processes, the steel industry and the production of wind turbines and solar panel frames.
Akatswiri has made bold promises: an investment of US$820-million into the project, which it estimates could generate US$260-million per year and create 1,300 direct jobs for locals during the mine’s lifespan.
Akatswiri held a provisional licence that granted it exploration rights for rare earth minerals and bauxite. In 2023, Malawi’s Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority (MMRA) granted the company a 15-year mining licence with one condition: Akatswiri’s environmental and social impact assessment must be approved by Mepa.
The Ministry of Local Government, which oversees chiefs, has sided with traditional leaders and locals, who are fiercely opposed to the project. In a letter to the ministry, dated November 2 2025 and which Oxpeckers has seen, Akatswiri’s CEO, Hilton Banda, accused the ministry of not consulting with the MMRA and said the environmental assessment process was complete.
Oxpeckers repeatedly tried to contact Banda for comment, but he failed to respond.
Uphill battle
It will be an uphill battle for Akatswiri to win over the community, said Senior Chief Aida Chikumbu, who represents 147 villages around Mulanje, and who has categorically refused to allow intrusive mineral extraction.
At a press conference in Mulanje on November 25 2025, she said: “Mount Mulanje is our identity, our protection, and our inheritance.”
“We will not allow greedy hands to dig into the heart of our mountain,” she added, and called for “conservation, not exploitation”.
Akatswiri’s project would also threaten the US$30- million, 6.5-megawatt hydropower plant to be built by Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust to supply electricity to Mulanje’s surrounding villages. The project is meant to demonstrate how conservation and development can coexist.
The trust already operates three synchronised micro-hydro facilities at the base of the mountain that collectively generate approximately 268kW of power daily, feeding into a single localised grid. The trust says these facilities serve more than 2,000 households, 13 schools, a health centre and 12 maize mills.
Residents in the dark
The residents of Kasantha, where CMG’s coal mine is based, know all too well what happens when mining happens without proper consultation.
Shadrick Chawinga, called Headman Mlindwafwa and the most senior leader in Kasantha village, said neither he nor other residents were properly consulted about the CMG project – and even the Mepa sanctions came as a surprise.
“We don’t know anything about the developments here. We just saw our rivers being polluted and then those of us who stay near the loading bay would be choked with coal dust. The river has cleared now, but the situation was very bad,” Chawinga said, noting that people’s harvests and livestock had been negatively affected by mining activities.
Kingdom Malanga, who chairs Kasantha’s community mining committee, told Oxpeckers: “The closure has brought some benefit in that the roads are now being fixed, they are renovating our school blocks, which had rotting roofs, and the loading bay now has a dike that protects the rivers. This should have been there right from the start.”
Illegal mining
Kasantha residents are also unhappy about the risks of illegal gold mining in their district, which they allege is conducted largely by people from neighbouring Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia, as well as South Africa. There is no official data available about the demographics of those engaged in illegal mining.
Malanga said the government, chiefs and the area development committee only began collaborating in 2025 to address this issue: “Maybe now we can actually see the way forward… Foreigners should not be benefiting from our resources while we remain in poverty.”
In November 2025, a trench dug for illegal mining collapsed and killed 11 people in Kasungu. In April this year the Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs toured mining sites in the district. Committee chairperson Savel Kafwafwa told reporters that communities were not only at risk because of such collapses; they were also being exposed to hazardous chemicals such as cyanide and mercury, which were handled without protective equipment.
The Ministry of Mining says it is working to transition small-scale miners into formal cooperatives, and an inter-ministerial task force has been formed to curb unregulated extraction. Minister of Mining Thoko Tembo met with artisanal miners in Blantyre on June 10 and stated that organising the sub-sector is critical for curbing illegal mineral trading, increasing foreign exchange earnings, and ensuring citizens benefit from the country’s resources.
Operation Samala Mgodi, a joint taskforce led by the Ministry of Mining and the Malawi Defence Force (MDF), was created in April 2026 to crack down on illegal mining. Its operations involve seizing equipment and dismantling makeshift shelters, as well as forcibly closing down unlicensed makeshift mines.
The taskforce has been accused of human rights violations by villagers, traders, miners and civil society organisations. MDF spokesperson Major Kelvin Mlelemba referred Oxpeckers queries to the Ministry of Mining, which did not respond. Malawi Human Rights Commission Chairperson Habiba Osman said the organisation would need to embark on a fact-finding mission before initiating any investigations or making recommendations.
New energy minerals
At Kasiya just outside Lilongwe City, work is moving ahead on what could become one of the world’s largest rutile mines. Sovereign Metals, a company headquartered in Australia, discovered rutile at Kasiya in 2019.
It’s the site of the world’s largest known natural rutile deposit and second-largest known flake graphite deposit. Rutile is used in the manufacturing of high-efficiency solar panels, and graphite is an essential component of lithium-ion battery anodes.
Sovereign Metals estimates the mine could generate US$16.2-billion over 25 years. At a press conference on April 22 2026, CEO Frank Eagar described it as “not simply a mining project – it’s a globally strategic asset”.
He said the company planned to sign an agreement with the approximately 48,000-household-strong Kasiya community that would allocate a fraction of the mine’s earnings to locals. He did not say how much, and the agreement with the government has not been made public.
The company hopes to start construction in 2027. During this phase, 2,000 people, most of them locals, would be employed, Eager said.
Malawi’s government said in the Ministry of Mining’s strategic plan for 2022 to 2027 that it expects the state coffers to benefit from corporate tax, royalties, payroll taxes and a shareholding arrangement with the Kasiya project.—OXPECKERS
