An aura of tension has gripped Malawi’s minerals sector after Mining & Trade Review newspaper through its social media outlet Mining Review Malawi published a picture of Minister of Mining Thoko Tembo chatting with founder and largest shareholder of Lindian Resources Asimwe Kabunga in Australia where the Minister is attending an international conference.
Australian listed Lindian is mining monazite at Kangankunde Rare Earth Mine in Balaka in controversial circumstances involving the use of a second-tier medium scale licence to mine at one of the world’s largest rare earth resources and getting authorisation to export the raw monazite despite a ban on raw mineral exports issued be State President Arthur Peter Mutharika.
Speaker of Parliament Sameer Suleman ordered Tembo to suspend the mine to deal with the anomalies but the Minister never effected the suspension though he responded in Parliament that he was taking action against the miner.
Tembo joined the social media debate on the picture countering arguments from the readers who were questioning the meeting with Kabunga.
Lindian is stockpiling ore at Kangankunde to start commercial exports this November to meet orders for the raw monazite concentrate worth millions of dollars that were already paid to the company, and Tembo as Minister will have to sign for the exports.
Lindian exported the raw minerals earlier to test run its refinery in Khazakhstan despite Mutharika’s ban. The President is yet to issue any statement on the issue.
Lindian Resources is using a medium scale mining licence belonging to a local company Rift Valley Resources Development to run Kangankunde after acquiring the licance in a US$30-million shareholding deal.
After Suleman’s order, Kabunga threatened the Malawi Government not to tamper with the medium scale licence by brandishing a 2018 Malawi Supreme Court Order.
