"Challenging uncompensated disturbances, damages, loss and suffering due extensive mining and prospecting operations"

[The South Africa Litigation Centre] is assisting the Kanyika Community based at Kanyika in the Mzimba District of Malawi to recover damages and compensation arising from extensive mining and prospecting operations conducted by Globe Metals and Mining (Africa) Limited (Globe Metals) with the authority of the Mzimba District Commissioner. The Kanyika Community—consisting of 1042 individuals—and their forefathers have occupied and used the customary land at Kanyika Area since time immemorial; growing seasonal and perennial crops, rearing animals, residing within the Area and maintaining cemeteries and burial sites to which they attach great sentimental, religious and cultural value. An important river on which they almost absolutely relied for their water supply also passed through the area.

In 2006, Globe Metals commenced the Kanyika Niobium Project (the Project) to prospect, mine and process minerals in the Kanyika Area, claiming it had been granted a mineral right to do so by the Government of Malawi and was acting with the permission of the Mzimba District Commissioner. The Kanyika Community was not consulted by either Globe Metals or the Government of Malawi before commencement of operations in the Area...

As a result of the activities of Globe Metals, the Community has suffered the following loss and damage...[including]...gross poverty, deprivation and perpetual food insecurity;...severely dilapidated [houses that]..will require substantial investment to be restored to a habitable state; [and] the drying up of the river which passed through the Area and on which the Community heavily relied as a source of water for domestic, agricultural and other purposes...