LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera on Monday, April 28, 2025 urged Ministry of Mining to come up with functional systems working around the clock to regulate the conduct of every player in the sector and to safeguard the country’s minerals.

Chakwera made the remarks on Monday at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC), in the City of Lilongwe, where he presided over the official opening of the 2025 Malawi Mining Investment Forum (MMIF).

The President said no one should have access to the country’s minerals without the ministry knowing about it.

“It is important to remember that those who want to steal our minerals are already here, some of them may very well have sneaked into this room, and these thieves do not sleep, and so the only way we can succeed in defeating their evil plans is to have a Mining Authority that is even more awake,and the job of the Ministry is to ensure that there are functional systems working around the clock to regulate the conduct of every player in the sector and to safeguard every single ounce of our minerals.

“Even if there are minerals deep in the remotest parts of the forests of Malawi, no one should be able to touch them without the Mining Authority or Ministry knowing about it, or be able to do so without a licence, or be able to do so without following the laws of Malawi,” he said.

Chakwera added that a big part of having this strong regulatory framework is transparency to the public.

He said it is disturbing that with all the mineral riches Malawi has, including the recently discovered rutile deposits recently discovered, “Malawians have yet to hear anything from Mining officials about what is going on in Kasiya regarding our rutile and what has been agreed about that rutile and with whom.”

“That is not acceptable. It is not acceptable that Malawians should be hearing about the rutile operations in Kasiya from a press conference by a foreign company in Australia or from that company’s report of the performance of its stock on the London Stock Exchange, as if here in Malawi the Ministry of Mining has no information to give Malawians about how my government is securing a prosperous future for them through this resource,” he emphasized. “So I am ordering that the silence from the ministry regarding the activities in the mining sector needs to end immediately, because our minerals are a matter of national security and there is no better security than putting things in the light.”

Speaking earlier, Minister of Mining Ken Zikhale Ng’oma said his ministry is working with draft policy control bodies to make the industry more competitive.

President of Malawi Chambers of Mines and Energy Maxwell Kazako said the institution has deepened their collaboration with government and other agencies to sharpen effective mining policies.