Face to face with a mining company

Southern Africa is known for its mining industry, for better and worse. Gold, copper, uranium and a large number of valuable minerals and rear earth have contributed to economic growth in several countries in the region.  Being quite dependent on the world market prices, mining is at the same time keeping economies hostage to those variations.

Malawi has not yet developed its mining potential to a significant level.  Tobacco has been by far the main export earner, but the world trend is not in favour of this trade.  Mining is seen as one of the alternatives.  A satellite geological survey was carried out last year, and great potentials were heralded by the government.  Some investors are in place, and explorations are on-going in some places.  The relationship between local communities and mining companies are not always the best.  Local communities have high expectations, but they fail to see benefits coming their way when exploration machinery invade their territories.

NCA has together with a coalition of local partners engaged in extractive industries with the notion that extracting values from Mother Earth should give benefits to those who have possessed the land, those who should benefit from redistribution of revenue collected by the government, the investors… and Mother Earth through environmental concerns.

This week I participated in a face-to-face meeting with bosses of a mining company that is involved in exploration of rare earth in the south-eastern part of Malawi.  NCA invited representatives of the coalition and other civil society organisation, and government through the geological survey to an open dialogue with the company.  NCA had earlier commissioned a study in the communities affected by the activities of the mining company, and had engaged them in an interactive “village theatre” to highlight burning issues. The producers of the report joined us for the meeting.

Community members engaged in "village theatre"

The meeting, which was said to be the first of its kind, turned out to be extremely interesting and fruitful. In an open atmosphere we listened and contributed. The local communities had enumerated a wide range of problems and expectations related to the entry of the mining company. In spite of its comprehensive efforts to support projects that the community had requested, including  rehabilitation of schools, building bridge, drilling water the image of the company was still dubious.  

A "happy classroom" decorated by the mining company

A bridge built by the mining company

As the mining company was given the opportunity to share their side of the story, we quite clearly realized that we are faced with one main challenge:  COMMUNICATION.  As clarifications were offered across the table, it was clear that misinformation and misconception were obvious.  We further realized that inherent tensions and conflicts among and between local communities played out through the relationship and perceptions of the exploration activities that were taking place within their territories.

The joint conclusion was that such meetings should have taken place much earlier.  As we move forward with new dialogue meetings, the possibilities of developing better approaches for processes of interaction between communities and private sector that can result in “win-win” situations should be possible. Responsible extraction of natural resources can benefit all stakeholders. I was pleased that I as NCA representative could contribute to this face-to-face encounter.