Net Mapping of Actors in Malawi’s Mining Value Chain: Who Does What, When and How

Abstract

Malawi is a country well-endowed with natural resources, but until recently, the mining sector was remarkably underdeveloped, informal and immature. A recent discovery of the purest and highest grade of rutile and natural graphite in Kasiya, Lilongwe has sparked debate in the country regarding how it can benefit from the same. Most gemstones and precious stones are exported or smuggled out of Malawi as ore and beneficiated elsewhere. Even though mining has backward and forward linkages, Malawi has failed to leverage this without a functioning mining support manufacturing industry, thus severely undermining the industrialization agenda as enshrined in the Malawi Vision 2063. Additionally, there is a lack of institutional capacity to manage the sector thus compromising the social-economic prospects associated with mining. The complexity of the sector attracts many actors, both transactional and national; as they interact, power relations emerge, which impede the advancement of the industry. The study finds no fault in having so many actors but argues that the individual interests of these actors at various stages of the value chain impede the progress of the mining sector and prolong the time between mineral discovery to production. The paper concludes that though the legal framework is somewhat inclusive, laws and regulations must be aggressively enforced and institutional structures and capacity must be enhanced. The paper recommends the speedy operationalization of the Mining Authority and the Mining Company to address power imbalances in Malawi’s mining sector and avoid the resource curse. The paper further recommends investing in human capital development at all levels for personnel working within the sector and that action needs to be taken to formalize the informal mining sector to promote significant local participation throughout the mining value chain.