Malawi's Rare Earths Rush Leaves Communities Behind

 
By Madalitso Wills Kateta, Malawi

  Mkango Resources officials briefing mining Minister Thoko Tembo on the mining project process

Stanley Banda, 27, farms vegetables on a small plot in Phalombe district, southern Malawi. On his radio and public meetings, he has heard about ‘rare earth minerals,’ ‘green energy,’ and ‘millions of dollars’. What he hasn't heard is how any of it will reach his village.
“They say this mine will bring jobs and development,” Banda says in Chichewa. “Years are passing and all we hear about is big money. But little is known on how that money will come to the community.”
Banda lives on top of what could become Malawi’s first major rare earth mine. And his confusion reflects a tension playing out across the Global South: as the world scrambles for minerals to power electric vehicles and smartphones, can mining deliver development without leaving behind local communities?

   The Songwe Hill Rare Earth Project mining site in Phalombe

The Songwe Hill Rare Earth Project sits in Phalombe District, about 90 kilometres from Malawi’s commercial city, Blantyre, near the border with Mozambique. 
Rare earths are a group of 17 metals, and despite their name, they are not actually rare, but rather essential. Neodymium and dysprosium make powerful magnets in EV motors and wind turbines. Others go into smartphones, laptops, and defense systems. 
With global demand projected to triple by 2035, countries and companies are racing to secure supply chains outside China, which currently dominates 70% of global rare earth processing. 
That is why Songwe Hill matters internationally. The 20-square-kilometer deposit across three traditional chiefdoms is being developed by UK-listed Mkango Resources. In 2023, Malawi’s Environmental Protection Agency approved its impact assessment. 
The government says the mine could create 1,200 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs, and generate about $120.6 million annually in taxes and royalties. For Malawi — one of the world’s poorest countries, battling a foreign exchange crisis — that revenue is critical.
Mining Minister Thoko Tembo recently called Songwe “one of Malawi’s most promising mining investments.”
But three years after the environmental report was approved, many people in Phalombe say they still don’t understand the project. The core documents — the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and the Mining Development Agreement — are written in English. In rural Malawi, Chichewa is the main language.
“The MDA and the ESHIA are in English,” says Josta Namonde of the Songwe Mining Action Group, a local watchdog. “We have been asking that they be translated so people understand what is really at stake.”
Rodger Kumalile Phiri of Art and Global Health Centre Africa (ArtGlo) says consultation was limited to a few local leaders.  
“The broader community was left out,” Phiri says. “Even those involved do not have adequate information on what is in the approved ESHIA. That is why some feel that stakeholders were bribed.”
Symon Thipa of Ufulu Wathu, a community organization, says families who have farmed this fertile land for generations want basic answers: How much land will be taken? What is the compensation? What are the health and environmental risks?
“The ESHIA was approved, yes. But we do not know what is contained in the report,” Thipa says. “Communities have a right to understand this because the project will directly affect their lives.”
The issue touches on a global standard called FPIC — Free, Prior and Informed Consent — which requires companies to fully inform communities before projects affecting their land proceed.
However, Mkango Resources says it followed the rules. In an email, spokesperson Alex Lemon said the company carried out ‘years of stakeholder engagement’ from national level down to village level, including separate meetings for women and vulnerable groups. 
“Consultations were held in the appropriate local languages,” Lemon said. “Mkango has a formal grievance system and remains committed to satisfying Malawian laws and regulations, as well as the rigorous international standards required of us.”
Meanwhile, the country's Ombudsman is currently investigating several mining operations over complaints of poor consultation. The stakes are high because of history. At Malawi’s Kayelekera uranium mine, which closed in 2014, jobs and revenue flowed out with little lasting benefit to local communities. Activists do not want a repeat.
For Asia and the West, Africa’s minerals are key to meeting climate goals. But for African communities, the green transition can feel like another extractive cycle if they are not included.
Namonde says Malawi must do three things to avoid that: translate the ESHIA and MDA into local languages, ensure fair compensation and resettlement, and allow independent monitoring of environmental impacts. Back in Maoni, Banda is not against the mine. He just wants clarity.  “If these are our minerals, make us understand how our minerals will benefit us,” he says.
As carmakers in Asia and Europe look to Africa for critical minerals, Songwe Hill is becoming a test case. Can the minerals that power the world’s green future also power development for the people who live above them? For now in Phalombe, that answer is still being translated.