Who benefits from mining?

Malawi is standing at the edge of a mining boom. From the rare earth deposits at Kangankunde to the globally significant rutile discovery at Kasiya, the country is being drawn into the heart of the world’s energy transition.

These minerals are essential for electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and the technologies meant to combat climate change.

On paper, this moment promises economic transformation.

In reality, it raises a more urgent question: Who truly benefits?

This is a story about development and justice.

Malawi contributes very little to global carbon emissions, yet its communities are increasingly being used to supply the minerals that power greener economies elsewhere.

This imbalance lies at the heart of climate justice. The ruralcommunities living near mining sites, often rural and marginalized, bear environmental and social costs for a global good they may never fully benefit from.

In theory, the Mines and Minerals Act (2023) makes it clear that all minerals are owned by the State on behalf of Malawians.

Environmental legislation requires impact assessments before projects begin and community development agreements are supposed to ensure that local people have a voice and share in the benefits.

There are also provisions for consultation, compensation and environmental protection.

However, laws do not implement themselves. Across mining-affected communities, a troubling pattern is emerging: Decisions are made far from the people most affected by them, consultations are often rushed or poorly understood and technical documents like environmental impact assessments are inaccessible to ordinary citizens.

Many communities are not even aware of their legal rights and how to exercise them.

This gap between law and lived reality is where injustice takes root.

If poorly governed, mining can leave behind more than economic gains. It can bring water contamination, land degradation, deforestation and long-term health risks.

It can displace families, disrupt livelihoods and erode cultural ties to land.

When benefits are unevenly distributed, it can deepen inequality rather than reduce it. Yet none of this is inevitable.

Malawi has to decide whether its mining boom becomes a pathway to shared prosperity or another chapter in a long history of extractive inequality.

That choice depends largely on public participation. Communities must not be treated as passive recipients of development but rights-holders. They have the right to access information, to be meaningfully consulted and to say NO where risks outweigh benefits.

They have the right to demand fair compensation, environmental safeguards, and accountability when promises are broken.

But rights are only as powerful as the awareness behind them. The media, civil society and public discourse must demystify mining laws and environmental protections, translating them into accessible language and practical knowledge.

We must create platforms on the radio, in community meetings and through local languages, where people can understand what mining projects mean for their lives. We must amplify local voices as central to decision-making.

We must hold the State accountable. The government holds Malawi’s minerals in trust for the people. That trust carries an obligation to act transparently, regulate effectively and ensure that environmental and social protections are not sacrificed in the name of investment.

Accountability also means following the money. If mining is to transform Malawi, then citizens must see how revenues are generated, shared and used to improve public services and local development.

The global demand for critical minerals is only going to grow. Malawi cannot afford to be left behind, but neither can it afford to repeat the mistakes seen in other resource-rich countries, where wealth flows outward while communities are left with polluted land and broken promises.

The voices of ordinary Malawians, especially those closest to mining projects, must shape the future of this sector not symbolically, but substantively.

In the end, the question is not whether Malawi will mine, but whether it will mine justly and justice begins with participation.

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