FROM FUEL DEAL TO GOLD MINE– ‘FOREX BUREAU’ SCORES (ILLEGALLY) AGAIN

Foreign nationals are barred–by law–from owning small-scale mines in the country but a group claiming links to the UAE royal family (recently exposed to have links to a forex bureau registered in Malawi which was controversially (and illegally) awarded a major fuel procurement license) have been granted a license to own a small-scale gold mine in Kasungu. 

GOLDEN MATONGA and JOSEPHINE CHINELE

Businessman Marcin Lapa posted this picture on LinkedIn from a meeting with President Lazarus Chakwera.

GOLDEN MATONGA AND JOSEPHINE CHINELE 

A group of foreign nationals at the heart of a controversial fuel procurement contract for the state-owned National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) exposed to be linked to a Lilongwe-based forex bureau,  Digital Fx (Malawi) Limited, have been granted a gold mining license in Kasungu amid questions about the legality of the deal as the country’s mining laws prohibit foreign ownership of small-scale mines.

The Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) previoulsy exposed the 128 billion kwacha procurement scandal at NOCMA, where Digital Fx (Malawi) Limited, representatives have been granted a contract without following the procurement laws and how despite the company touting alleged links to a royal family in United Arab Emirates, its dealings has raised suspicions as all payments wil be made via the Lilongwe-based forex bureay its directors also own.

Even curiously, the company will be paid half the amount upfront before any deliveries and all the payments will be made in Kwacha. 

A second investigation now reveals the company has eyed Malawi’s mining wealth and once again appears to broke the law in its dealings with Malawi government.

The company’s representatives did not respond to questions sent by PIJ on the matter. But one of the directors for the company, Marcin Lapa, who is also identified in the PIJ investigation on the fuel deal as one of the representatives of the self-proclaimed UAE royal family-owned company, announced the awarding of the license via the social media platform, Linkedin. 

PIJ further sourced information on the licensing process at the Ministry of Mining. According to well-placed sources, the application for the license was done on 12th March 2024. Just in under 16 days, the application was granted on 28th March 2024. 

In the PIJ investigation on the fuel deal, documents identified Marcin Lapa–alongside Jakub Tadych and Arthur Phiri– as the directors for QLV Digital Fx (Malawi) Limited, a company to be K128 billion for an oil deal with NOCMA.

The gold mine licence application was made by a person whose phone numbers and email address PIJ sourced but is not republishing. The Address of the applicant is P.O Box 40043, Kanengo (the same as the Forex Bureau). The email address granted to the applicant suggests the application was made by Jakub Tadych using a Qassimi company email account. Qassimi is the name of the UAE royal family allegedly behind the fuel procurement at NOCMA. 

The speed of the approval for the application process also raises eyebrows on the sort of due diligence that was undertaken on the deal.

PIJ was able to track the mining license to a gold mine in Kasungu–thanks to the Mining Cadastre, an online portal where all mining licenses are registered. The company on the Cadestre is registered as QLV DigitalEX Limited. The mine is 16.53 square kilometres.

The Exclusive Prospecting License was granted on 27th March 2023 and will expire on 26th March 2027. (Certificate shows the permit was granted in June on 24th June 2024. 

“I'm happy to announce that QLV LLC - QASSIMI LAPA VENTURES with Victoria Mines & Minerals LLC (QLV Group) successfully transitioned from small-scale to medium-scale mining in Hashtag #Malawi, securing a license for metals and precious stones for the next 5 years! This also includes an export permit and an incredible allocation of over 14 square kilometers of land.” wrote Lapa.

Lapa accompanied his post with a picture of himself meeting President Lazarus Chakwera. He added that his Malawi-registered firm has been granted a medium-scale mining license after previously receiving a small-scale license.

“This significant milestone wouldn't be possible without support we've received from His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of Malawi, and His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Al Qasimi, Noor Al-Nahda Investment LLC (QLV Group) and AL QASSIMI – KEPTAIN LIMITED PARTNERSHIP FUND Their dedication to fostering growth in the hashtag #energy and hashtag #naturalresources sector has been instrumental in making this possible.”

PIJ sent questions to President Lazarus Chakwera’s spokesperson to find out what role, if any, the president had in the gold mine deal as speculated by Lapa but we did not receive any response at the time we published this article.  

Mining and Mineral Regulatory Authority (MMRA) Director General, Samuel Sakhuta confirmed in an interview the granting of license but couldn’t say why and when the company was granted a small-scale license or was upgraded to a medium-scale license.

“The company is called QLV Digitalfx and it has one shareholder, Marcin Tomasz Lapa. The Ministry of Mining's Licensing Committee recommended their application for licensing and its licence was prepared. It will be collected when the environmental assessment from MEPA is submitted to the Ministry and ground rentals are paid,” said Sakhuta. 

The law

Mr. Lapa and Mr Jakub Tadych (who made the application at the Ministry of Mining) are not Malawian nationals. Through his social media posting, Mr Lapa said the licence transitioned from small-scale to medium-scale begs questions about the legality of the awarding license.

Section 178 of the Mines and Minerals Act reads:  “A small-scale mining license holder shall be (a) an individual who is a Malawian citizen (b) a mining cooperative society registered pursuant to section 288 © a mining partnership registered pursuant to section 288; (d) a company duly incorporated under the Companies Act, that is one hundred percent owned by the Malawian citizens. 

The social media posts by Mr Lapa suggest when the license was granted in March it was granted as a small-scale license, an analysis shared by mining experts PIJ discussed its findings prior to publication. 

A natural resources justice network activist said granting the license was a clear violation of the laws.

“In Malawi, a foreigner is not allowed to own a small-scale license but this guy says he had the license,” said the activist.

Kennedy Rashid, a mining sector analyst, added that the license raises questions  over potential corruption as it appears to be done under a cloud of lack of transparency and accountability.

“Technically, the government was supposed to embrace openness and improve accessibility of the awarding process information of such licenses. Proactively the government could publish information on the criteria, evaluation processes, and decision-making processes that were followed to issue such licenses. Value realization of such licenses requires the government to share information such as beneficial ownership disclosure, and pre-licensing steps that the owner of the license did according to law, issues like the case of Environmental Social Impact Assessment and other technical steps have not been made public by the government,” said Rashid.

The UAE Gold connection

The UAE's connection to the gold industry is significant. Malawi is not well known to be a major mining country, but when President Lazarus Chakwera ascended to the presidency in 2020 in one of his first acts as president, he revealed in a speech to parliament on 10th September 2020 how he was shocked upon becoming president to find out that a study had established that US$88 million dollars worth of gold was exported from Malawi to the United Arab Emirates in 2016 without being recorded. 

To date, the President has yet to reveal who was behind the export and where was gold mined from. (We sent questions to the President’s spokesperson but he was yet to respond to questions at the time we published this report).

According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, an online global trade portal, Malawi Exports In 2022, Malawi exported $225M in Gold, making it the 79th largest exporter of Gold in the world.