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Malawi to host mineral exhibition
By
Denis Mzembe - 01-07-2002 |
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Malawi is from July 25 hold a mineral exhibition which will bring together about 10 countries and 45 local companies, Director of Mining Grain Malunga said on Wednesday.
Addressing the press, Malunga said among other things the exhibition is geared to stimulate economic growth in the new millennium and provide an opportunity for mutual business discussion among private companies involved in mineral exploration, mining, mining support services and users of mineral products.
He said a conference will also bring together both local and international participants.
Some of the countries to participate in the exhibition include Australia, Belgium, South Africa, The UK, Canada, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
President of the Gemstone Association of Malawi Charles Chapomba said during the briefing that the exhibition will also present an opportunity to gemstone producers to auction their products.
“We are going to have a gemstone auction and we are organising people to bring their gemstones and market them internationally,” he said.
He also said the prices of the gemstones are usually dictated by the quality of the gemstones one is offering for sale.
“But the problem we have been having is that people do not know the quality of gemstones so they think that whatever they have is worth thousands of kwachas. And the place the gemstones are currently produced in Mzimba people use primitive methods of picks and shovels and most of the stones are shattered by the time they come out of the ground. This is why some of them do not fetch the right amounts of money,” Chapomba said.
Malunga, on the other hand, said the problem of illegal miners and buyers is still acute in Malawi.
“It’s not that taxes imposed by government are heavy. The problem is that the informal sector has very limited resources for operating their mines. Even the owners of the mines are struggling to pay the workers. So in the event that the worker finds a good stone and he hasn’t eaten for three days they are bound to sell the stone illegally,” he said.
He said his department is coming up with a mechanism where the miners are able to support their employees at the same time find appropriate technologies which they can use for increased production.
Said Malunga: “We also need to assist them with civic education which is what we have started now and I’m pleased to say that we are benefiting a lot from the Hipc programme. We are now able to support the small scale miners to realise maximum benefits from their mining activities”.
Mining, which Malunga said supports about 40,000 families in the country, accounts for about 1 percent of the GDP. However, about US$5 million is lost annually through illegal mining and trading. |
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