Anyone planning gold exploration in Malawi has to read the Mines and Minerals Act, 2023 (Act No. 25 of 2023) before reading any geology. The Act sets the licence ladder, makes the Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority the single licensing body, creates a web-based cadastre, and treats gold, silver and precious stones as reserved minerals with their own dealing licence. It is a detailed statute, and several of its rules are specific to gold.

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Two limits shape any plan for gold exploration in Malawi, and we would rather state them at the start. First, no published resource or reserve figure for gold exists in the sources we could open: the 2015 USGS Minerals Yearbook shows only exploration companies, and the 2019 edition says output could not be estimated. What the official and academic record does contain is a good description of a few gold districts, mostly in the southern and central Basement Complex, and we use those below. Second, new licences are on hold: in February 2026 the President suspended the issue of all types of mining licences, and a business body said in August 2026 that the suspension was still in force. Read the next box before you budget for an application.

“In Malawi’s 2023 Act, a small-scale mining licence covers no more than two hectares.”

Gold exploration in Malawi: the licence ladder under the new Act

The Mines and Minerals Act, 2023 was assented to on 7 June 2023 and published on 16 June 2023. The text below follows the Act as published on the African Mining Legislation Atlas. It establishes the Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority, which the Act tells to maintain a web-based mining cadastre and a public register of mineral tenement applications and holders. A mineral tenement can be a reconnaissance licence, a non-exclusive prospecting licence, an exploration licence, a retention licence, or a small-, medium- or large-scale mining licence. An artisanal mining permit sits outside that list.

Two features stand out for anyone looking at gold. First, the Act says an artisanal mining permit may only be used for minerals such as sand, gravel, stones, clay and aggregate used locally, and it may not be used for precious stones, rare earth minerals, coal or any metallic mineral. Gold is a metal, so a gold operator needs a small-scale mining licence or larger. Second, the small-scale licence area is a minimum of one hectare and a maximum of two hectares, which is far smaller than a small-scale block in most neighbouring countries. A project of any real size has to move to a medium-scale licence, which the Act ties to a prefeasibility study and an area justified by known minerals.

Reconnaissance, prospecting and exploration

A reconnaissance licence gives a non-exclusive right to collect reconnaissance data over a large area. The work programme must provide a substantial increase in the acquisition and interpretation of reconnaissance data, which suits a satellite-led approach. It cannot be transferred or assigned, and land that was not in the licence area at grant cannot be added later. The Authority has 60 days from registration of an application to decide on a reconnaissance licence.

An exploration licence is the standard right for serious gold exploration in Malawi. It gives an initial term of five years, and the holder may apply on up to two occasions for an extension of up to three years, applying no later than ninety days before expiry. When extending, the holder must reduce the licence area by at least half, though if that would leave less than 25 square kilometres the applicant can ask to keep up to 25. Approval depends on compliance, minimum annual expenditure, reports, compensation paid and annual ground rent paid, and a refusal can be appealed to the High Court within thirty days. Annual ground rent is payable on reconnaissance, exploration, retention and mining licences at a prescribed rate per unit area. A non-exclusive prospecting licence or an artisanal permit pays none.

Work out your tenement area and term

Small-scale gold inside an exploration licence

For gold exploration in Malawi, the Act allows an exploration licence holder to give the Authority prior written permission to grant small-scale mining licences inside its exploration area, on conditions and limits the holder sets, and the holder can rescind or change that permission at any time. When a small-scale licence is granted to the holder of a reconnaissance, non-exclusive prospecting or exploration licence, the land concerned leaves the larger licence area. For gold exploration in Malawi this matters because the legal small-scale unit is so small: artisanal gold sites that sit inside a large exploration area can be licensed one or two hectares at a time without a conflict over title, but only with the explorer’s consent.

What counts as exploration spending

The Act sets a minimum annual expenditure for an approved exploration work programme, in an amount fixed by regulation, and says acceptable expenditure is spending directly connected with acquiring and interpreting exploration data from the area of the licence, including related laboratory, prefeasibility and feasibility work. It excludes buying a tenement, land or buildings. A satellite study of the licence area is, on that wording, the kind of data acquisition and interpretation that the definition describes, but the Authority decides what it accepts, so ask before you rely on it. Holders must file an annual expenditure report detailed enough for the Authority to verify the amounts, and the Authority can demand an independent audit of any report it finds suspicious.

Retention licences and the road from gold exploration in Malawi to mining

An exploration licence holder who has located a deposit of commercial significance that cannot be developed immediately can apply for a retention licence, which keeps the ground while conditions improve. To move to a medium- or large-scale mining licence, the area must be necessary for mining the known minerals and justified in a prefeasibility or feasibility study. The Act says land thought to be prospective but where reserves have not been identified, measured and confirmed cannot be included in a mining licence area. In other words, a satellite target on its own does not become a mining licence; drilling and a study have to come first.

A worked example: 40,000 hectares

For a worked example of gold exploration in Malawi, take 40,000 hectares, or 400 square kilometres, well inside the 2,500 square kilometre exploration cap. If you plan eight years of work, you use the five-year term and one three-year extension, and at the extension the area is at least halved to 20,000 hectares. A second extension would take it to 10,000 hectares. If a screen ranks 10% of the licence as priority ground, that is 4,000 hectares, which fits comfortably inside the 10,000 hectares you could hold after two extensions. The important check is that the 4,000 hectares sit together. A rectilinear block that holds the ranked ground, with room to spare, is a far better asset than ranked patches scattered across 40,000 hectares.

Rules that apply to every gold exploration in Malawi application

When an application arrives, the Authority checks that a substantial part of the land is available, that mining licence areas do not overlap exploration or mining licences held by others, that the form and documents are complete and that the fee is paid. An incomplete application is returned and not registered. A complete one is registered with a number, date and time, and posted on the Authority’s website within five days. For tenements other than reconnaissance and non-exclusive prospecting licences, the first applicant to submit has priority. A tenement must be a single contiguous rectilinear shape whose boundaries use the coordinate reference system the Government land survey department requires.

Gold is a reserved mineral

The Act defines a reserved mineral as gold, silver, precious stones and any other mineral that may be prescribed. Anyone who possesses, buys or sells reserved minerals in their raw state needs a reserved minerals licence, unless they hold a mineral tenement or bought from someone who does. The licence is valid for one year, is not transferable and can be granted to a licensed bank, a company incorporated in Malawi or an individual aged 18 or over who is fit and proper. A licence holder may only buy raw reserved minerals from a tenement holder or another licence holder, must keep the licence at the registered premises, must report dealings in the prescribed way, and can be inspected at any time. Possession, purchase or sale in breach is an offence carrying a fine of K10,000,000 and two years in prison.

That has a practical consequence for exploration. A tenement holder who finds gold can hold and process it under the tenement, but any buyer in the chain needs a reserved minerals licence. If you are valuing a project or planning to sell material, check the buyer’s licence first. A contractor who inadvertently finds reserved minerals while building public works must tell the Authority within thirty days.

If you hold a boundary or are about to apply, you can draw it on mining.farmonaut.com, Map Your Mining Site or send it through our mining query form for a quote on a satellite screen.

Gold in Malawi: Basement Complex geology and named districts

Start with the rock, because gold exploration in Malawi is a Basement Complex story. The Ministry of Mining’s 2013 geological database project, carried out with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, reports that the Malawi Basement Complex occupies 85% of the land area and is mainly paragneisses, granulites and felsic to ultramafic igneous intrusive rocks, with gold among its known deposits alongside nickel, copper, graphite, marble, iron sulphide, kyanite and gemstones. A 2022 paper by Chisambi and co-authors describes the same rocks as Precambrian to early Palaeozoic high-grade para- and orthogneisses and schists, reshaped by the Ubendian, Irumide and Pan-African orogenies, and notes that the geology of Malawi is poorly understood, with the oldest geological map dated 1965. For anyone doing gold exploration in Malawi that is both the promise and the problem: gold sits in structures inside old, deeply weathered metamorphic terrain, and the published maps are thin.

Gold exploration in Malawi starts at the Kirk Range and the Manondo-Choma thrust

The best documented gold ground is the Kirk Range and Lisungwe valley in southern Malawi. Gold has been recorded there since 1908, and the JICA report lists Geological Survey Department investigations in 1934 to 1935, 1958 to 1962 and 1992 to 1993, followed by drilling of target areas at Manondo after a re-examination of UNDP airborne magnetic and radiometric data from 1984 to 1985. The gold is mainly hosted in decimetre-scale quartz-pyrite lodes and stringer zones up to one or two metres thick, with enhanced residual concentrations in the overlying regolith. The old workings (Breeze’s, Palula Mine and Peterkin’s vein) date from the 1930s. An inclined shaft at Palula, sunk to 27 metres, gave channel samples of 0.6 to 11.8 g/t, averaging 2.7 g/t over 1.2 metres, while residual gold in the regolith above was reported at 12 to 42 g/t and averaged 2.6 g/t over a workable area. The structure is the Manondo-Choma thrust, 13 kilometres long, trending north-east and dipping south-east, with pelitic gneisses, calc-silicate rocks and marble in the hangingwall and metabasic gneisses and amphibolites in the footwall.

Two further layers of evidence matter. The consultancy ERA-Maptec interpreted satellite imagery together with gravity, aeromagnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic data in 2000 and, as the JICA report summarises it, found gold anomalies and old workings in an arcuate belt 40 kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide around the Lisungwe Anatectic Complex, matching the Chongwe Schist. It proposed four possible gold models there, from disseminated deposits in graphitic schists to epithermal veins tied to rift faulting, and JICA’s own reading is that intrusion-related gold systems are the dominant target in the Basement Complex. The second layer is geophysical. A high-resolution airborne magnetic survey flown for the Ministry of Mining by Sander Geophysics, with lines 250 metres apart, was interpreted by Chisambi and colleagues as showing north-east and roughly east-west structures that confine the gold, at depths of 200 to 1,000 metres, while current mining stays shallower than 50 metres and no gold mine has gone deeper. None of this makes a resource. It does tell an explorer which direction to draw a licence rectangle for gold exploration in Malawi.

Other places for gold exploration in Malawi that the record names

These entries come from the JICA and Ministry of Mining report and the 2015 USGS Minerals Yearbook chapter. The same JICA report puts the scale plainly: it judges the gold potential “not high at present”, though it says the value for small-scale mining should not be ignored. A 2018 Nation Online investigation quotes the Geological Survey director calling Malawi a green field where detailed exploration is still needed, and lists Chitipa-Kameme beside Dwangwa, Makanjira, Nathenje and the Kirk Range as places that guide prospecting for primary gold.

Artisanal gold and the formal route into gold exploration in Malawi

The USGS Minerals Yearbook for 2019 lists gold among the minerals produced by artisanal and small-scale operations, reports that illegal artisanal gold mining resumed in early 2019 at Lundu, Makanjira and Nathenje after the Government shut mining down in 2018 over environmental degradation and unsafe working conditions, and says the Government planned to formalise gold mining through cooperatives. It reported about 730 people employed in exploration in 2019 and a mining and quarrying sector worth 0.8% of real GDP, and it could not estimate gold output. The EITI country page adds that the central bank set up an Export Development Fund to formalise exports of artisanally mined gold and that the Reserve Bank publishes annual gold export values. The September 2026 Nation Online report counts 29 artisanal groups sensitised and 10 cooperatives registered this year, with cooperative registration the main prerequisite for an artisanal or small-scale licence, and says a bank plans to formalise gold trading with the state-owned Malawi Mining Investment Company.

The 2023 Act is the formalisation step on paper. It sets the licence tiers above, a licensed route for reserved minerals, and a Geological Survey reserve area mechanism. The Minister can propose that an area with known mineralisation be temporarily reserved so the Department of Geological Survey can study it for possible competitive tendering. The area is designated by gazette notice for up to two years, described by latitude and longitude as one or more cadastral blocks, and the Authority may not register applications for tenements in it, apart from reconnaissance licences. So an area that looks open on the map may be reserved for tender, and a reconnaissance licence is how you can still study it.

What satellites can and cannot see for gold in Malawi

The sourced geology above tells us what to ask of the imagery. A screen for gold exploration in Malawi maps what the surface shows: iron-oxide and clay signatures, lineaments and drainage, vegetation response and disturbed ground. In the Kirk Range the gold sits in structures that trend north-east and roughly east-west, so lineament mapping and the pattern of drainage offsets are directly relevant, and the 2000 ERA-Maptec work already used satellite interpretation alongside geophysics to outline its 40-kilometre arcuate belt. The richest reported values were in the regolith over the bedrock, which is the weathered cover that optical data sees first. Where gneiss and schist are exposed the signal is strongest. Where soil, farmland or woodland covers the rock, and across a Basement Complex that covers 85% of the country, the signal is indirect and a screen cannot confirm what lies below. Gold held in structures 200 to 1,000 metres down, as the Kirk Range magnetic study suggests, is out of reach of any optical sensor and needs geophysics and drilling. We say so in our reports.

Alluvial gold is a second case. The Lisungwe and Likudzi rivers yielded coarse angular gold, which the JICA report reads as a nearby source, and it calls the alluvial potential limited but a useful indicator of bedrock sources. Mapping the catchment above an artisanal site from imagery, and ranking the structures and altered rocks upstream, is a sensible desk step before anyone applies for ground for gold exploration in Malawi.

Use it where the law asks for it

• ✔ Reconnaissance work programmes. The Authority assesses whether a reconnaissance programme substantially increases the acquisition and interpretation of reconnaissance data. A satellite screen is a direct way to deliver that over a large area, which fits early gold exploration in Malawi well.
• 📊 Choosing what to keep. At each exploration licence extension at least half the area goes. A ranked screen is a defensible way to pick the half that stays.
• Mapping the surface features the Act cares about for gold exploration in Malawi: villages, farmland, monuments and shrines, natural features and neighbouring tenements, all of which appear on the sketch maps the Authority asks for.
• ⚠ Limits. A screen cannot see gold or grade. Targets are exploration targets that need geochemistry, geophysics and drilling.

Community and compensation come with the territory

An exploration licence holder must develop a community engagement plan with local government, traditional leaders, communities, women and minority groups, update it at least every three years, and submit it for registration. A tenement holder is also liable to pay compensation to owners and occupiers of land for loss or damage, and women must be consulted individually when compensation is assessed. Mapping settlement and cultivation from imagery is a sound first step for both documents.

Malawi cadastre, register and geological data

The Act requires the Authority to maintain a web-based mining cadastre and a register that is open to public access. The EITI country page confirms that Malawi has a public mining cadastre online, hosted on the Landfolio map portal, and says licences are awarded first come, first served. The same EITI assessment notes that the cadastre was not searchable by date of award and that the full list of rights granted since 2021 was not publicly accessible, so a clear map is not proof that nothing sits underneath. Our cadastre portal guide compares Malawi with other countries. The Authority’s own website (mmra.mw) showed an account-suspended notice when we checked in October 2026, so the forms and fee schedules it used to host could not be read. Confirm the current application route, forms and fees with the Authority in Lilongwe.

For geoscience data, the US Commercial Service country guide says the Geological Survey Department updates a geo-data platform and that high-resolution airborne geophysical data can be bought from it. The airborne magnetic survey used in the Kirk Range study was flown for the Ministry of Mining by Sander Geophysics, and the Department’s mapping base is older: the paper cited above says the oldest geological map is from 1965. The Ministry of Mining website that hosts the Department’s pages refused our connection in October 2026, so ask the Department in Zomba which sheets and survey grids cover your polygon.

Annual ground rent for gold exploration in Malawi: the formula is public, the rate is not

Section 255 of the Act fixes how ground rent works even though the amount is left to regulation. Holders of reconnaissance, exploration, retention and mining licences, which includes small-scale mining licences, pay it every year; non-exclusive prospecting licences and artisanal permits do not. The rent is the tenement area multiplied by the prescribed rate per unit area for that tenement type, paid before 31 December in advance of the calendar year it covers. In the year of grant it is prorated from the grant date to 31 December, and partial payments are not accepted. If a tenement expires before the year ends, the full year is still due and nothing is refunded. Pay late and the penalty equals the rent itself, so the bill doubles. If it is still unpaid on 28 February the Authority starts the process to cancel the licence. Section 254 lets the Minister prescribe fee and rent levels on the Authority’s recommendation, and we could not find the current schedule. A March 2026 report in Nyasa Times via AllAfrica quotes a parliamentary committee calling the existing K10,000 mining fee too modest and proposing a K1 million minimum for local investors and dollar payments for foreign companies. Those were proposals, not law, so the calculator for gold exploration in Malawi above asks you to type the rate you have confirmed rather than assuming one.

The Act is also clear about data for gold exploration in Malawi. Reports, data and information that a tenement holder must submit to a ministry, department or agency become the property of the Government, but submission does not stop the holder using them during the term of the tenement, and information submitted by a holder stays confidential while the licence is valid and for two years after it ends. Exploration licence holders must file an annual expenditure report, a mid-year progress report, an annual technical report and a termination report, and must hand over records, maps, geological sections and cores when a tenement ends. If you commission a satellite study for gold exploration in Malawi, treat it as part of the data you will eventually file.

We are not a licensing authority, land-title adviser or regulator. Farmonaut does not file applications, check title or advise on which tenement to hold. We offer a satellite prospectivity read of the polygon you choose.

Satellite screening for gold exploration in Malawi

For gold exploration in Malawi you send us the boundary as a KML, KMZ or coordinates, with the country and target mineral. We choose multispectral or hyperspectral data, run the analysis and deliver in 5 to 20 business days, depending on area size and mineral complexity. Our satellite-based mineral detection flags likely mineralised zones, alteration halos and structures, and the premium report adds prospectivity heatmaps, high-potential zones with estimated location and depth ranges, geological interpretation and georeferenced GIS files. Premium+ adds TargetMax drilling intelligence and 3D subsurface models.

• ✔ Speed and cost. Satellite screening can lower early-exploration cost by up to 80 to 85% and cut timelines from months to days, compared with starting on the ground.
• 📊 Scope by tier. A two-hectare small-scale site and a 2,500 square kilometre exploration licence need very different screens, and we scope each one differently.
• See a typical deliverable in the 3D prospectivity mapping overview.
• ⚠ Not licensing or investment advice. Targets are exploration targets, not resources.

“An exploration licence in Malawi must give up at least half its area at each extension.”

A short checklist for gold exploration in Malawi

1. Confirm that applications are being accepted while the 2026 moratorium on new licences lasts.
2. Choose the tenement: reconnaissance to study, exploration to test, small-scale only for a one-to-two hectare site.
3. Check the register and reserve areas for overlaps and Geological Survey reserve areas before you draw a boundary.
4. Prepare a rectilinear, contiguous boundary in the required coordinate reference system.
5. Screen the polygon and decide in advance which half you would keep at an extension.
6. Plan the dealing side: any buyer of raw gold needs a reserved minerals licence.

Frequently asked questions

Reviewed October 2026 against the Mines and Minerals Act, 2023 (Act No. 25 of 2023) text on the African Mining Legislation Atlas, the JICA and Ministry of Mining GIS database report (2013), Chisambi and others in the International Journal of Mining and Geo-Engineering (2022), the USGS Minerals Yearbook chapters for 2015 and 2019, the EITI Malawi country page, the Landfolio Malawi cadastre portal, the US Commercial Service Malawi mining guide, and Xinhua and Nation Online reports on the 2026 licence suspension. Fees, ground rent, minimum expenditure and portal rules are set by regulation and change, and the Authority website was suspended when we checked, so confirm with the Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority before you apply. Targets are exploration targets, not resources. Nothing here is legal or investment advice.