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Finalisation of regulations for Presidential ban on raw mineral exportation to help create sanity in chaotic sector
July 27, 2026 / Marcel Chimwala
As reported in our main article, government is finalising formulation of regulations for raw mineral export ban declared by State President Arthur Peter Mutharika soon after taking over power in last year’s elections.
It is unfortunate that it has taken long to develop the regulations leaving the sector chaotic but we commend government for moving with speed after stakeholders raised concerns about the impacts of the ban on the sector.
We have published articles about exploration firms failing to export mere samples for their scientific studies because of the ban with security officers or authorising personnel applying their own understanding of the ban to bar the exports due to lack of supporting regulations.
We have written about small-scale miners failing to export their gemstones for processing outside the country due to the ban despite that the country lacks facilities for gemstone processing.
The situation has not only led to declining income and increased hardships for small scale miners but also a drop in mining revenue for the Malawi Government as reported in the latest annual economic report published by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.
We believe the coming of the long-awaited regulations will be a remedy.
Equally, as reported in the article, we believe the regulations will deal with uncertainty on the export of the Kangankunde Rare Earth monazite concentrate. In scandalous circumstances, the Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority (MMRA) issued two contradicting letters. In one letter, the MMRA rejected Lindian to export the concentrate owing to the ban while the other gave consent to the company with the signatory former Director General of MMRA Samuel Sakhuta claiming that converting monazite ore to monazite concentrate is full-scale processing possible in Malawi in accordance with the ban.
Certainly, the regulations will tell us what the ban means on processing of rare earth ore. Is production of monazite concentrate full-scale beneficiation accepted by Malawi Government as reported in the letter that Lindian presented to Australian Stock Exchange or is processing to rare earth oxides full-scale processing, according to the thresholds of the ban?
CONGRATULATIONS HONOURABLE THOKO TEMBO
On a different note, we join stakeholders in congratulating Honourable Thoko Tembo for being sworn in as Minister of Mining following his appointment several weeks ago. We wish you all the best Honourable in this signifiant role for Malawi’s economic revival!!!
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Rehabilitation:
The establishment of a stable and self-sustaining ecosystem, but not necessarily the one that existed before mining began. In many cases, complete restoration may be impossible, but successful remediation, reclamation, and rehabilitation can result in the timely establishment of a functional ecosystem.
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Remediation:
The cleanup of the contaminated area to safe levels by removing or isolating contaminants. At mine sites, remediation often consists of isolating contaminated material in pre-existing tailings storage facilities, capping tailings and waste rock stockpiles with clean topsoil, and collecting and treating any contaminated mine water if necessary.
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