Mzimba Niobium Mine to last 20 years - Globe

Nyasa Times
Collins Mtika

The proposed Kanyika Niobium Mining project in Mzimba district is expected to last at least 20 years and employ 300 to 500 locals when production commences, Nyasa Times has leant. Niobium is a recent discovery at Kanyika, Traditional Authority Mabilabo in Mzimba. A bankable feasibility study on the project was commissioned in August 2009 and production is planned to commence in 2013 at a rate of 3 000 tonnes of niobium metal per annum.

“The number of people to be employed is currently estimated at 1000 – 2000 persons during construction. The number of local verses expatriates will depend on the skills and expertise available in Malawi. This is not known at this stage,” Globe Metals & Mining (Africa) managing director Kerry Fairley said. Niobium is a rare, soft and gray-white metal that is used for the production of high-temperature-resistant alloys and special stainless steels among other things.

“The project is still in the early stages of feasibility and thus planning is still in process. Therefore we do not know at this stage the area that will be affected by mining infrastructure or how many people will be moved. “The process of relocation will be discussed and agreed between the tribal authority, community leaders, the government and Globe,” he said. The Mining project is expected to transform the district in terms of social infrastructure such as roads, schools and health facilities and business opportunities apart from making a dent in Malawi’s Gross Domestic Product.

“We will implement a social responsibility plan for the project. However the details of this will depend on the needs of the community which are not known and need to be included in our studies and agreed with government, the tribal authorities and community leaders,” Fairley said in a written response to Nyasa Times. For years people in Mzimba have been trekking to South Africa since the days of the Temporary Employment Bureau of Africa (TEBA) when Malawi was the bastion for cheap labor.

And many think the Niobium mine will in some way reverse the great trek of those who traverse the length and breadth of South African cities and towns, in search of menial jobs, which they hardly find and end up being bundled in cargo planes back to Malawi.

Global Metals and Mining, the company that will run the mine has in recent weeks concluded a marathon of public meetings in the district to disseminating findings of the Environmental Impact Assessment. “The purpose of the meetings was to inform interested and affected parties on issues that have been raised and how these issues will be addressed in the studies undertaken as part of the EIA”, Fairley said.

Apart from niobium, Kanyika is believed to also contain some other minerals such as uranium, tantalum and zircon. The World Bank has projected that Malawi’s nascent mining sector would become one of the country’s main source of foreign direct investment and generate up to 25 per cent of export earnings.—(Reporting by Collins Mtika,Nyasa Times)