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The early hours of 1st October 2025 are still haunting mining communities in Kasungu district after eight miners including boys aged 13 and 16 were trapped and killed due to a tunnel that collapsed at Kasalika gold mine.
Barely some two weeks after the incident, another tragedy occurred at Chitanthamapiri mining site, three kilometers away from the first gold mine and two people were killed.
One of the survivors for the second accident, Joseph Nyirongo, shared the memory of what he went through as traumatic. He said watching people die with heaps of soil left him with no choice but to quit mining.
“It is not easy to get a gram of gold.so much work has to be done and desperation pushed us into tunnels whilst barefooted and with no any protective gear. This deadly gamble has claimed twelve lives in two months, leaving fifteen of us injured,” he said.
Artisanal gold mining has become the rhythm of life in various parts of Kasungu. Whilst admitting that the work is exhausting, risky but financially attempting, a miner, Jelemoti Gondwe said they make a minimum of k90,000 per gram with customers from Lilongwe, Blantyre and even Zambia.
The October tragedy prompted Traditional Authority Chitanthamapiri to suspend all mining activities in her area and later, government temporarily halted mining activities at the two mines pending investigations, but on the ground mining never fully stopped.
The people who are now fighting hard to prevent more deaths are the women who had buried their loved ones in the previous incidents.
Led by a widow to the tragedy, Beatrice Kanache, a group of 20 women has become a determined grass root force pushing for safer and regulated mining. She said the Kasungu women forum aims to confront leaders and ensure that unregulated chaos should stop occurring.
“Villagers should be benefiting from the existence of these mines. The benchmark of all this is due to the financial struggles that communities are encountering. Government needs to intervene and ensure that the area should be certified as a mine and locals should be properly trained if they want to mine,” she suggested.
The widows’ activism has reached the council. Kasungu District Commissioner, James Kanyangaladzi acknowledges the concerns, but said the council lacks full authority to safe guard the mines.
“Delays in devolvement of mining regulatory policies have made it hard for councils to be involved in regulating and monitoring of small scale mining. This is still managed by the central government but their advocacy is valid,” said Kanyangaladzi.
Kasungu Civil Society (CSOs) Chairperson, Blaxion Banda expressed worry with delays in implementing mining policies, attributing this to loss of life.
“Failure to make a concrete decision on regulating artisanal mining shows lack of commitment. Without proper measures, people will keep on dying and the environment will continue degrading. There is an urgent need of regulation,” He said
A 2021 Study on Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) in Malawi documented that many miners operate under harsh conditions with limited knowledge of mining and geology. The study says revised legislation and offering trainings among others could contribute significantly to socio-economic development while reducing risks.
Conducting mining activities without proper licenses or safety equipment is a criminal offense under the Mines and Minerals Act of 2023.
Mining expert, Grain Malunga proposed the need for amplified advocacy for artisan sector to reduce fatalities and revenue losses.
“I must commend the women for what they are doing. It shows that they have passion for saving lives and also pushing for a proper way of revenue generation. Government should come clear and declare sites that have mines with trained personnel,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Natural resources, Jean Mathanga has vowed that her Ministry is working to formalize artisanal mining.
“We are finalizing the process to issue licenses to cooperatives and train them in proper mining methods as one of the control measures. The sector has potential in the economic impact but it also has risky factors. Regulation is indeed needed,” she said.
Amid all this, a local women’s forum in Kasungu is still geared to make sure that the grief they had should push them further to advocate for sustainable policies and regulations.
