Cassius Chiwambo reports that Malawi, in southeastern Africa, occupies a thin strip of land between Zambia and Mozambique protruding southwards into Mozambique along the valley of the Shire River. In the north and northeast it also shares a border with Tanzania. Malawi is connected by rail to the Mozambican ports of Nacala and Beira. Malawi’s economy has for many years been agriculture-based and this industry did not have the needed muscle to increase the country’s economy. Following the need to expand its economic base, Malawi made a firm decision to promote extraction of its mineral resources. Despite the previous idleness of the mining sector, which was a result of lack of interest by the immediate post-colonial Government who focused on putting in place policies that promoted the agricultural sector, Malawi is now becoming one of the active mining countries in Africa, as evidenced by the various exploration and mining activities taking place currently.
The country’s macro-economic vision is indicated in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS). In this strategy, the mining sector is pointed out as one of the key priority sectors for economic growth. In view of this strategy, the Government’s policy direction is to have:
- A viable and transparent fiscal and taxation regime that attracts investors in the minerals sector and ensures that a substantial amount of revenue is retained in Malawi;
- A clear, transparent and equitable regulatory framework for the minerals sector. This policy has resulted in massive exploration activities. From the exploration works, it has been revealed that the national geological endowment includes:
- High-value minerals, such as uranium, heavy-mineral sands (HMS), rare earth elements (REEs), niobium, zircon, and tantalum;
- Industrial minerals, such as phosphate, bauxite, gypsum, limestone, silica sand and clays;
- Energy resources, such as coal and uranium; and
- Precious and semi-precious stones and metals, such as ruby, aquamarine, and tourmaline.
The country has the third largest lake in Africa, Lake Malawi. This lake is situated in the highly anticipated Petroleum Occurrence Zone (POZ), situated in the Great African Rift Valley, which has lately been proven to have a huge potential for petroleum in Africa; this potential is evidenced by the discovery of oil in Lake Albert, which lies in the same rift system. Since 2004, Malawi has intensified activities such as policy formulation and capacity building in the minerals sector. Lately, investment in Malawi’s minerals sector has greatly increased. The Malawi Government is committed to putting policies in place that will attract private sector participation in the exploration, exploitation, processing, and utilization of Malawi’s mineral resources. To this end, in March 2013, the Mines and Minerals Policy of Malawi was approved and launched by the Malawi Government recognizes that the minerals sector has significant potential to contribute towards rapid economic growth and development of the country, as evidenced in its inclusion in the Malawi Economic Recovery Plan 2012. The policy seeks to stimulate and guide private mining investment by administering, regulating and facilitating the growth of the sector through a well-organized and efficient institutional framework. The Government will also intensify provision of extension services to the artisanal and small-scale miners and female miners.
The goal of the Mines and Minerals Policy is to enhance the contribution of mineral resources to the economy of the country, so as to move from being an agriculture-based economy to a mineral-based economy. Currently, mineral production includes brick clay, coal, crushed stone, limestone, uranium, gemstones and ornamental stones (amethyst, garnet, ruby, sapphire, tourmaline, agate and rose quartz) [44]. Five coal mines are currently producing in Mchenga, Nkhachira, Kaziwiziwi, Eland and Lufira. Gemstones are being exploited in various mines in the Mzimba district and Nyala at Chimwadzulu Hill. Limestone is being mined in Wimbe. A phosphate mine is located in Tundulu. Uranium mining and milling has been carried out in Kayelekera, but this operation is currently on standby status due to reductions in uranium prices.
In addition to this resource production, exploration is ongoing for gold, niobium, tantalum, titanium, zirconium, graphite, rare earth elements and uranium.
In 2009, Malawi entered the international family of uranium producers with the start of operations at the Kayelekera uranium mine in Karonga, which is being operated by Paladin Africa Ltd. That event signalled a change in the wider fortunes of the African region as a uranium producer. In 2012, nearly 2 percent of the world uranium production came from Malawi. Uranium accounted for 8.4 per cent of Malawi’s exports by value in 2011. It is now estimated that in production terms, Africa as a whole will be the fastest growing region for uranium production [3].
All mining activities are under the control of the Department of Mines of the Ministry of Natural Resources, with environmental matters falling under the Department of Environmental Affairs in the same ministry. As more new discoveries of mineral deposits are being reported, the Government realized its capacity shortfalls to efficiently govern the sector. Despite intensifying its own capacity building initiatives, which are also being supported by the international organizations such as the IAEA and the Government’s cooperating partners, the exponential growth of the sector needs a consequent exponential growth of the Government’s skills in managing it.
Challenges in Mineral Resources Reporting
One of the challenges that Malawi is facing relates to the reporting on the mineral resources because they are reports by exploration companies. Malawi’s normal procedure is to give operators the freedom to report its exploration discoveries using the system that it prefers. At the end of the day the Government benefits from knowing the resource findings for its own planning purposes, as well as reporting this data to other institutions, such as the Minerals Yearbook prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Thus, Government officials need to know and understand the various reporting systems. This has proven to be a great challenge.
The Mines and Minerals Act in “The first Schedule” provides that it is the duty of the holder, or former holder of a Mineral Right to furnish information, submit reports or keep records. By having this provision, investors have been submitting reports using the format of their choice. This has been a challenge for the Government, for its harmonized interpretation of the submitted reports entailed multi-skilled professionals to interpret such reports. Due to lack of such multi-skilled professionals in the sector, the Government has been facing challenges in interpreting all of the submitted reports within the shortest period as it sometimes relies on sourcing experts to do the interpretation where necessary. Following this challenge, the Government made a decision to find a suitable reporting system for governmental purposes that will link with the formats generally used by investors. The Government could then encourage the investors to use this reporting system for its purposes only.
Several systems were studied and some systems were found critical to several investors. During this exercise, it was noted that if one existing system (already being used by the companies in Malawi) was to be chosen it meant the Government was to either force or convince the other investors to adopt the one system that was recommended from the Government’s perspective. This development was seen to be difficult and could result in suspicion and conflict of interest, because the Government is not required to operate in such a manner.
A further search was done and it came to the point when the Government realized the existence of UNFC-2009.
The Malawi Government studied the UNFC-2009 classification system; they made a basic analysis of the country’s reported mineral resources by applying the UNFC-2009 categories and classes.
Early Exploration - REO Rare Earth Elements as Oxides.
Uranium Resources of Malawi
One of the major uranium deposits in Malawi is the Kayelekera Deposit. In the early 1980s, the Department of Geological Surveys discovered uranium mineralization in the sandstone of Kayelekera. Thereafter, the Central Electricity Generating Board of the United Kingdom (CEGB) evaluated the deposit. Extensive drilling conducted from 1982 to 1988 defined an initial inferred resource of 9,800 tU at an average grade of 0.13 per cent U [45].
The Kayelekera Uranium Deposit is a sandstone-hosted uranium deposit, located close to the north tip of the North Rukuru Basin. This basin contains a thick (at least 1,500 m thickness) sequence of Permian Karoo sandstones preserved in a semi-graben, located about 35 kilometres to the west of, and broadly parallel to, the Lake Malawi section of the East African Rift System. Historical studies indicate that economically recoverable resources of uranium and coal exist within the Kayelekera area. Coal is present in the project tenement area in two deposits: the Nkhachira Deposit and in association with the Kayelekera uranium Deposit. Coal in the Kayelekera Deposit is contained within the uranium resources and is therefore unavailable for commercial extraction. Moreover, this coal is of very low quality.
Kayelekera is the first mine to have produced uranium in Malawi and is currently the only producer (Figure 12). Another potential uranium resource is the Kanyika Niobium Project held by Globe Metals & Mining Ltd. Uranium is an important by-product in the complex polymetallic ore within a pegmatite quartz vein, hosted in Proterozoic felsic schists. Niobium and tantalum products would be produced with uranium and zircon as by-products. Following an analysis of Malawi’s preparedness and priorities for the operation of its minerals sector, with focus on radioactive minerals, in 2013 an IAEA expert team found that Malawi was in a good position to enter into such an important sector (Table 13).
Classification of Uranium Resources
Kayelekera is currently the only uranium producing project in Malawi. Quantities estimated as “commercial project” (E1 F1.1 G1,2) amount to 5,398 tU. Additionally, 11,014 tU is estimated as a “potentially commercial project” (E2 F2.1 G1,2,3). Aggregate quantities of the deposit under both the classes amount to 16,412 tU (Table 14). The quantities are adjusted for depletion for mining to the end of June [45].
The Kayelekera project was placed on care and maintenance in February, 2014 due to depressed uranium market conditions. The production has been suspended until sustained uranium price recovery occurs [45]. Since the project is maintaining the operational readiness to come to operation any time in the future, it may be designated as E1 F1.1 under UNFC-2009. It can be further classified as “developed non-producing”, analogous to petroleum projects described in the Bridging Document between PRMS1 and UNFC-2009 [1].
A high level of granularity can be possible when using UNFC-2009. For regional development and sustainable planning of the project, this level of precision in reporting can be highly useful. On a national level for governmental planning purposes, a lower level of granularity could be sufficient. All the uranium projects in Malawi can be classified under UNFC-2009 as shown in Table 15.
Table 13 Uranium projects – Country preparedness and priorities, Malawi Country Status by Milestone Achieved Geology & Exploration Resource Evaluation & Reporting/ UNFC-2009 and NEA/IAEA ‘Red Book’ (Pre)-Feasibility, EIA, EMP and Production, including CX, HSE Critical Dependencies/CCP Actions
Malawi
On Production/ Development Pending/ Exploration Projects
High potential in Karoo; uranium associated with niobium
Newest producer of U in Africa, Kayelekera; second mining project in country; new project feasibility studies underway; exploration projects
Mineral sector a priority now to reduce poverty; issues with Mineral Development Agreements
Capacity in Mineral Development agreements; sustainable development of uranium resources; social communications
IAEA lead international peer-review of uranium operations
CCP, critical control point; CX, comprehensive extraction; EIA, Environmental Impact Assessment; EMP, Environmental Management Program; HSE, Health, Safety, Environment; UNFC-2009, United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources 2009.
1 SPE/WPC/AAPG/SPEE Petroleum Resources Management System of 2007 which has been endorsed by SPE, WPC, AAPG, SPEE and SEG.
Table 14 Uranium quantities of Kayelekera Deposit, Malawi* Area/Deposit Operator Ore (tU) Average Grade (% U) UNFC-2009 Class UNFC-2009 Sub-class UNFC-2009 Categories Remarks E F G Kayelekera-I Paladin Africa Ltd. 388 0.099 Commercial Project On Production 1 1.1 1 Project under Care and Maintenance/ Developed Non-Producing 3,993 0.075 1 1.1 2 1,017 0.064 1 1.1 1 Stockpiles Subtotal E1 F1 G1+G2 5,398 Kayelekera-II 639 0.086 Potentially Commercial Project Development Pending 2 2.1 1 7,548 0.059 2 2.1 2 2,827 0.053 2 2.1 3 Subtotal E2 F2 G1+G2+G3 11,014 Total E1 F1+E2 F2 G1+G2+G3 16,412
*Classified according to UNFC-2009 (effective date: as of June 2014).
Conclusion
UNFC-2009 is an effective tool for reporting and management of uranium at regional and national levels. Higher granularity is important when reporting individual projects, and the information at this level of detail is important when addressing socio-economic issues at a regional level. The scheme also allows aggregation of the total quantities for comprehensive understanding.
UNFC-2009 is particularly important for national reporting where data is assimilated from different company sources, both from public reports as well as direct communications to the Government. While most of the public reporting is done under international schemes suitable for the respective companies. Many companies that do not need public reporting could communicate quantities of uranium and other commodities to the Government under UNFC-2009.
The sustainable development of mineral commodities, such as uranium as a by-product in the case of Kanyika Project, is not only important for Malawi, but also for the nuclear industry as a whole. The uranium recovered in this manner has the least mining footprint, does not become a detrimental factor for the environment, and is likely to bring overall socio-economic gains for the country. Use of UNFC-2009 allows tracking of such sustainable possibilities, which is its major advantage.
The Government of Malawi’s overall information on the minerals industry can be strengthened when the reporting also considers “non commercial projects” and “exploration projects”. These are the projects that could be expected to contribute to mineral production in the long term and thus have an impact on the economy over larger time frames. However, the effective use of UNFC-2009 needs comprehensive information on the principles, rules and guidelines. The associated bridging criteria to the existing reporting frameworks must also be understood for effective use of UNFC-2009. Further improvement in capacity in the use of UNFC-2009 is required for introducing a new scheme for national reporting. Currently, Malawi has just finalized a comprehensive Airborne Geophysical Survey Exercise. In this case, depending on the positivity of the survey results, Malawi expects a huge in-flow of transnational, as well as domestic investors, who will be interested in the information generated. This will mean a huge need for a homogeneous reporting format, such as the use of UNFC-2009. As such, UNFC-2009 will very much benefit the country.
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