Malawi’s Legal Battle over Uranium Mining Subsiding

Malawi’s Legal Battle over Uranium Mining Subsiding
By Gregory Gondwe
MZUZU, DEC 20 – Raging legal battle over uranium mining in Malawi is subsiding after civil society organisations that took the matter to court announced that they have settled the matter outside court amid bribery accusations.
Six Non-Governmental Organisations that included the Citizens for Justice, the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (CEPA), Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS), Catholic Community for Justice and Peace (CCJP) and the Uraha Foundation were against the lucrative project citing a number of reasons.
The NGOs referred the matter to the High Court in Malawi in order to address all issues pertaining to the shortfalls in the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the granting of the mining licence to Paladin Limited, the Australian mining company to excavate the precious yellow ore.
Since June this year, Government and Paladin Limited, engaged the NGOs into a dialogue persuading them to settle the matter amicably.
The mining site, Kayelekera mines, is found in the northern part of Malawi, which lies 40 kilometres west of the provincial town of Karonga and 650 kilometres north of capital city Lilongwe.
Initially Paladin Resources held 100 per cent interest in the Kayelekera project through its wholly owned Malawi registered subsidiary, Paladin (Africa) Limited before the Malawi government got 15 per cent.
Its prospecting licence, which covers 15,700 hectares, was granted in 1998.
Works at the site started in earnest on November 7, 2007 after the three parties reached consensus, which was fortified by a visit to the site by government officials led by Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe, and civil society organisations representatives.
Many local observers have since attacked the civil society organisations of receiving kickbacks to pull out the case from court.
Undule Mwakasungula CHRR Executive Director was quick to dismiss any claims that they received kick-backs from government and Paladin in order to soften up.
"We engaged into a tripartite dialogue in June and all what we were demanding will be worked out according to a signed agreement," he said.
Finance Minister Mr. Goodall Gondwe said the fact that the project has started with some controversy has created a strong foundation for its success.
Reacting to allegations that Government and the Paladin Limited bribed the NGOs to pull out from the court case, both Government and the NGOs instead, accused the media of peddling negative stories about Malawi.
"Malawians have a tendency to become very excited by any negative development the country is faced with," Gondwe said.
He said when Non Governmental Organisations went to court to stop Paladin Limited from mining the uranium everyone, especially the media were very excited.
"And now that the NGOs have agreed to settle the matter out side court the media is in the forefront raising a finger of suspicion that Government and Paladin limited have bribed them," he said.
Gondwe said the Media lost the opportunity when it failed to analyse why the NGOs were against the project and now it cannot establish on its own whether the NGOs have been bribed or not.
"Malawians should stop becoming contented with frivolity that is bent at causing damages to the nation," he pleaded.
Mwakasungula said it is a shame that in Malawi there is a belief that nothing is done in good faith.
"The decision we have made leaves us with very clear conscious because we had honest and very honourable discussions with Government and Paladin," he said, adding that they realised that it is important that at a certain point better decisions should be made for the interest of the whole country.
"It is up to the people to judge us…," he added.
He said all the issues they contended against will be addressed and they do not see the purpose of continuing with the court case.
Paladin Limited Executive General Manager Mr. Jim Morgan said Paladin could not give kickbacks to anyone else because it has a belief in being an honourable corporate ethical company striving to uphold its corporate identity.
"The board, the directors and the people within Paladin share a genuine belief in what they are doing and they believe that they are honest and fair in their dealings," he insisted.  
The NGOs were contending that uranium mining would cause environmental degradation and pollution of rivers, Lake Malawi and contamination of ground water among others.
CHRR said then that when they met the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to Malawi they were told that the country was not ready to start the mining of Uranium.
"The IAEA said Malawi does not have a regulatory legislation to control the mining of uranium in the country and that there is need to put in place a legal framework to control the movement of Uranium from the mine to the point of shipment," said Mwakasungula.  
An Australian university professor Gavin Mudd condemned the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared by Paladin.
Mud alleges that the EIA fails to include studies of sufficient scientific quality and length of environmental monitoring to make a credible case to establish the extent of the environmental damage from the proposed project.
"In Australia it is accepted that the best long term out come for uranium tailings is to deposit them back into a former open cut or even underground mine, thereby ensuring better long term environmental and radiology activity," he said.
He however said such was not the case with the Kayelekera project as the Paladin proposes to leave the tailings, which is the radioactive material left after processing and extracting uranium above the ground.
Gondwe quashed such claims saying uranium mining at Kayelekera would negatively affect the country.
"We have been informed uranium is being produced in a number of countries both in Africa and elsewhere and people are surviving. It can’t only be in Malawi where people are going to die out of it," he said.
The Malawian NGOs called on Paladin to ensure that no waste would be dumped into natural waters, such as the Sere Stream and the Rukuru River, both near the deposit, which would lead to the pollution of Lake Malawi. 
In particular, the NGOs warned of the dangers of mismanaging the mining operation’s waste products.
Ed Becker, Paladin’s chief geologist said the company, which operates another mine in Namibia, would use the best design criteria for management of the tailings and any water used by the project. 
"The tailings would be compacted in dams, designed by experts in consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and ultimately covered and re-vegetated, he said.
The company expected to draw from Australia’s experience in managing tailings, as its uranium reserves were the world’s largest, accounting for 24 percent of the global production, according to the UIC.
Paladin, Government and the NGOs have said this has all been addressed in the Deed of Settlement and Lease.
Secretary for Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace John Chawinga said the Deed of Settlement and Lease will be presented in Court and was not without some strong guarantee.
"We will go back to court if Government and Paladin limited fail to comply with what they have agreed at one point in future," Chawinga said.
He said in the agreement Government is also supposed to facilitate drafting of the regulatory legislation on mining, which it should let Parliament deliberate on and pass before June 30 2008, failing which Paladin should not export uranium.  
Gondwe said once the project takes off the ground, it will be become the second biggest forex earner in the country after tobacco as it is expected to be contributing 40 percent of the country’s total export income.
Paladin Limited Executive General Manager Mr. Jim Morgan however expressed fears that the Project could stall due to delays in the construction of a very important Karonga-Chitipa road, which has become a political song for a decade now.
"We have engaged government in a dialogue to look at alternative of the Karonga-Chitipa road project since it has a potential to hold up the mining project," he said.
Construction of the final processing plant is expected to complete in the first quarter of next year.
According to James Eggins, a spokesman for Paladin Resources, the US$200 million capital cost of the project could generate between $150 million and $180 million a year, depending on the price of uranium. 
Becker said Paladin is expected to create up to 1000 jobs during the construction phase and more than 200 permanent jobs in the operations phase, besides the employment of contractors.
He said the project is expected to produce about 1,000 tonnes of uranium oxide each year and estimates that the Kayelekera deposit can support a 10-year mine life producing approximately 10,000 tons of uranium oxide.