International Monetary Fund (IMF) Reaches Staff-Level Agreement on the First Review of Malawi’s Extended Credit Facility | Africanews

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Reaches Staff-Level Agreement on the First Review of Malawi’s Extended Credit Facility | Africanews: he IMF team reached a staff-level agreement with the authorities of Malawi on the completion of the first review under the Extended Credit Facility; Moderate economic growth is likely to strengthen to about 4 percent in 2019, followed by a rise to 6-7 percent over the medium term; Looking forward, fiscal policy should focus on actions to restore budget balance to correct for last year’s spending overruns and help cope with any shortfalls in budget support.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Pritha Mitra, Mission Chief for Malawi, visited Lilongwe from September 25-October 5, 2018 to conduct discussions on the first review of the three-year arrangement for Malawi under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) [1] (see Press Release No. 18/157 ).

At the end of the mission, Ms. Mitra issued the following statement:

“The IMF team reached a staff-level agreement with the authorities of Malawi on the completion of the first review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), which is subject to the approval of the IMF Executive Board.

Read-across from Talaxis investment suggests Mkango Ltd is trading at a significant discount, says SP Angel

Read-across from Talaxis investment suggests Mkango Ltd is trading at a significant discount, says SP Angel: Mkango's rare earths projects have already attracted significant interest, and cash

According to the US Geological Survey, China accounts for around 79% of the world’s rare earth production. That’s as far as can be ascertained, because much of Chinese production is opaque and hard to quantify.

Either way, such an imbalance in global production at a time when trade war rhetoric against the Chinese is rapidly being converted into hard tariffs, is likely to favour significant rare earths operations in jurisdictions outside of China.

READ:�Mkango Resources receives more encouraging assays from drilling at Songwe Hill
Mkango Resources Ltd (LON:MKA) has one such project, the Songwe Hill operation in Malawi. This project is moving rapidly towards a production decision, helped along by a significant investment at the project level from major commodities trader Talaxis.

This Talaxis investment is interesting in several ways. First, there’s every likelihood that Talaxis will follow its money when a production decision is made, meaning that for Mkango, financing Songwe Hill could be pretty straightforward.

MALAWI: Public electricity company at geothermal school in Kenya - Afrik 21

MALAWI: Public electricity company at geothermal school in Kenya - Afrik 21: Malawi wants to get into geothermal energy with the objective to draw on Kenya's experience. A delegation from Malawi Electricity Generating Company travelled to Nairobi for working sessions with Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) and Geothermal Development Company (GDC).
Geothermal energy has a significant impact on Kenya’s energy mix: 30% in 2018. The country’s first power plant (Olkaria I) dates back to 1981. Kenya is the leading producer of geothermal energy on the African continent, with an installed capacity of 700 MW. Many projects are underway in the country. It is therefore from that experience that Malawi wants to learn from.

New tariff should Boost power supply - The Nation Online

New tariff should Boost power supply - The Nation Online: New tariff should Boost power supply Archibald kasakura October 4, 2018 0 Comments � Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) has said the 31.8 percent electricity tariff hike over a four-year period will be meaningless if Escom does not improve power supply. The pronouncement by MCCCI chief executive officer Chancellor Kaferapanjira on Tuesday comes on the back of a tariff hike approval by Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) on Monday based on Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) undertaking to improve electricity supply, which has been intermittent for the past three years

Extractive industry revenue down 10% to k5.3bn—report - The Nation Online

Extractive industry revenue down 10% to k5.3bn—report - The Nation Online: k5.3bn—report
Martha Chirambo
October 5, 2018
0 Comments
Malawi has earned K5.3 billion in revenue from the extractive industry, the second Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (Mweiti) report shows.

This is a 10 percent drop from the 2015 revenue which stood at K5.93 billion

Graphite miner posts K3.8 billion annual loss - The Nation Online

Graphite miner posts K3.8 billion annual loss - The Nation Online: Sovereign Metals Limited, an Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)-listed mining firm conducting a feasibility study for graphite at Malingunde in Lilongwe, has posted pre-tax loss of $5.2 million (about K3.8 billion) largely due to exploration expenditure.

This is on top of another loss of $3.6 million (K2.6 billion) posted the year before, according to the company’s 2018 annual report.

But mining expert Grain Malunga, who is also former minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, in an interview, argued that under normal circumstances, the firm was not supposed to post losses as mining has not yet started.

He said the miner is only in research stage.

Malawi Stock Exchange maintains bullish run in Q3 | The Times Group

Malawi Stock Exchange maintains bullish run in Q3 | The Times Group: The Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) continued with its bullish performance in the third quarter of 2018 as reflected by a 57.47 percent increase in share value.

In its third Quarter Market Performance report released on Wednesday, MSE indicates that the market, however, recorded a 76.35 percent decrease in terms of share volumes traded.

IMF, Capital Hill in talks | The Times Group

IMF, Capital Hill in talks | The Times Group: By MacDonald Thom: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is this morning holding a press conference, after its team, led by Pritha Mitra, Mission Chief to Malawi, visited the country from September 25 to October 5.

The team was in the country to conduct discussions about the first review of the three-year arrangement for Malawi under Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for about $112.3�million.

Electricity tariff 32% up | The Times Group

Electricity tariff 32% up | The Times Group: Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) has rebuffed Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi’s (Escom) proposal to effect a 60 percent base electricity tariff increase between 2018 and 2022 and has instead, allowed the parastatal to increase the electricity charges by an average of 31.8 percent.

Comment On Rare Earth Mining in Balaka

For more than a decade a geologist, Michael Saner has held the rare earth mining to ransom.

 US$100-million from the Malawi Government for damages plus sunk costs, legal costs and interest. “ The matter dates back to 2000 when the ministry granted Saner the EPL for Kangankude Mine in Balaka. The EPL was issued on March 15, 2000, for an initial period of three years and it was renewable.

On November 25 2002, Saner submitted an application to renew his EPL of  Kangankunde Carbonatite located in Balaka District and in compliance with the Mines and Minerals Act, the application was submitted three months prior to the expiry date of the EPL but the ministry did not respond to Saner’s renewal application and no grounds were given.

The ministry only gave the reasons for non-renewal in May 2003 after inquiry and officers in the ministry told Saner that the EPL would be renewed but it was not.

However, the ministry issued the mining license to a close associate of Muluzi  Tony Patel, in May 2003 although Patel never held an EPL or engaged in mining. He was a furniture seller. . Three years later Patel sold the “rights” for US$4 million to Lynas Corporation Limited, an Australian publicly-listed company. Mr. Patel

In 2006, Saner obtained a court order which required that the EPL be renewed but it was not renewed, a development which made Saner unable to move to the exploitation phase which was the main objective of the EPL and in 2010, Saner obtained an injunction which prohibits the granting of a mineral license of Kangankunde to any other party other than him” (https://mwnation.com/court-awards-a-geologist-k69-5bn}/

Now we are informed that  ASX-listed Lindian Resources’ geologist Michael Saner has signed a consent order with the Malawi Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs, bringing the company a step closer to acquiring up to 75% in the Kangankunde rare earth project, in Malawi.

This has huge implications for the rare earth industry. Given the previous experience, we insist on a transparent process. What exactly is the new agreement with Saner? Does this lay to rest his outrageous claim?