JACKPOT! Australian mine strikes rare earth treasure in Malawi

Malawi is sitting on a mining jackpot after high-value rare earth minerals were discovered at the Kasiya Rutile Project in Lilongwe, adding fresh strategic value to what was already considered one of the world’s largest rutile deposits. But behind the excitement lies an uncomfortable reality: Malawi does not own Kasiya or several of its other multi-billion-dollar mining projects. From Kayelekera’s uranium mine to Kangankunde and Songwe Hill’s rare earth deposits, control of some of the country’s most valuable mineral assets rests with foreign companies, raising fresh questions about how much of the wealth generated from these resources ultimately remains in Malawi.

The newly identified minerals—dysprosium, terbium and yttrium—are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, defence systems and advanced electronics, making them among the world’s most sought-after resources. These are the same critical minerals helping to power the economies of countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, France and the United Kingdom. Yet despite sitting on deposits coveted by some of the world’s richest nations, Malawi remains among the poorest countries in the world and continues to struggle to finance basic priorities.

The contradiction is difficult to ignore. A country sitting on uranium, rutile, graphite and rare earth minerals is still battling food insecurity, aid dependence and chronic foreign exchange shortages. At times, Malawi has even had to turn to neighbouring Zambia for maize supplies while millions of its citizens face hunger.

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Only this week, government released just K5 billion to Admarc despite allocating K60 billion for maize purchases, raising concerns about its ability to cushion vulnerable households against food shortages. For critics, the image is stark: Malawi sits on some of the minerals powering the future of the global economy, yet often finds itself holding out a begging bowl for food, aid and foreign exchange. “These results confirm that the mine-hosted rare earth mineralisation is present in pits scheduled for the early years of production at Kasiya,” Sovereign Metals Managing Director Frank Eagar told one of the local prints,Daily Times Malawi.

The discovery is expected to increase the value of the Kasiya project and strengthen Malawi’s position in the global race for critical minerals needed in the green energy transition. The latest discovery is also likely to revive concerns about how Malawi values and licenses its mineral wealth. Only months ago, questions were raised over the Kangankunde rare earth project after Malawi’s mining regulator acknowledged that the original licence classification was largely based on information submitted by the investor.

The admission sparked criticism from observers who argued that government should have conducted more independent scrutiny before approving licences for what later emerged as one of Africa’s richest rare earth deposits. The controversy fuelled wider debate about whether Malawi has the technical capacity, data and negotiating power needed to independently assess the true value of major mineral discoveries before agreements are signed. As critics asked at the time, if a project later turns out to be one of the richest deposits on the continent, was it properly valued when the licence was first awarded?

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