President Lazarus Chakwera Monday opened the 2025 Malawi Mining Investment Forum, where he criticised mining officials for apparently being too secretive about deals taking place in the country.

Chakwera described this tendency as unacceptable and urged authorities to be open and tell the country’s stakeholders, Malawians, what minerals the country has and what deals they have entered into with investors.

“It is not acceptable that Malawians should hear about the rutile operations in Kasiya from a press conference by a foreign company in Australia or from that company’s report on the performance of its stock on the London Stock Exchange, as if here in Malawi the Ministry of Mining has no information to give Malawians about how my government is securing a prosperous future for them through this resource,” the President said.

He went on to order that the silence from the ministry regarding activities in the mining sector must end immediately, because the minerals are a matter of national security.

Chakwera told the conference that he is closely monitoring what is happening with the Mining Development Agreements (MDAs) and is receiving feedback from global experts in mining agreements to determine whether the MDAs authorities are offering foreign companies are the best deals.

The Malawi leader said he expects the Ministry of Mining to be transparent about MDAs for every mine in the country, and that investors partnering with the government should also be accountable to Malawians by sharing their side of the story.

He also revealed that the government intends to create a Sovereign Fund through which the proceeds from mining activities will be secured for all Malawians, for the benefits of mining need to go beyond corporate social responsibility to one village.

“But the bottom line is that those of you in the sector need to stop operating in secret and start telling Malawians what is being done to ensure that their minerals are safe,” he repeated.

Chakwera added that there is no doubt about how much wealth Malawi has hidden beneath its soils and told investors that when they set foot on Malawian soil, they set foot on untold and unbelievable riches.

“Beneath these soils is uranium, which the nations of the world need to fuel their nuclear reactors for the generation of electricity. Beneath these soils is gold, which the nations of the world need to safeguard their wealth in the event of economic disasters.

“Beneath these soils is coal, which the nations of the world need to generate steam-powered electricity for domestic use and fuel manufacturing plants for the production of steel and cement,” he said.

Chakwera said the only people his government is interested in working with are serious investors who have the resources to invest heavily