FORMER First Minister Hears Of Malawi Partnership

FORMER First Minister, Jack McConnell MSP, visited Kilmacolm Primary to speak to pupils about their partnership with a school in Malawi.

Mr McConnell, who is in line to be the next commissioner to Malawi, spoke to primary six and seven pupils.

Kilmacolm is one of nine Inverclyde schools to be twinned with a school in Malawi’s Chiradzulu District. It has been paired with Phinda Primary since August.

Head teacher Sheena McFarlane said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to be actively involved in all areas of global citizenship. The partnership stimulates thinking and learning, helps develop attitudes and values, and offers further scope to investigate rights and responsibilities”

Councillor Stephen McCabe, Inverclyde’s Council Leader and Education Convener, has two children attending Kilmacolm Primary. He met Mr McConnell at the school and said: "Our Malawi Schools Partnership is a fantastic initiative that is helping pupils develop social and cultural links with children from Malawi, and this will build awareness of global issues.

"Inverclyde’s link is enterprise-based with schools exchanging goods to sell, sharing ideas and working together. Inverclyde Council is delighted to support the national agenda of encouraging educational links between Scotland and Malawi and it was a pleasure to have Jack in Inverclyde to tell him of our schools partnership.”

Speaking to pupils during a question and answer session, Mr McConnell said: “The difference in the life expectancy between Malawi and Scotland is staggering so partnerships with the country are important. I’ve been interested in issues concerning Malawi for some time now and it is wonderful that I am going to get the chance to go and do some work there.”

Kilmacolm Primary’s partnership actions so far include:

- Setting up a steering group consisting of primary six and seven pupils.
- Created a presentation about Phinda Primary.
- Awareness raising within each class.
- Designed flyers for parents to raise awareness.
- A logo design competition.
- Letters sent to Phinda Primary describing the pupils and the school.
- Collection of coloured pens and pencils in the school, to send to Phinda Primary to give them a more colourful Christmas.

Iain Mills, Inverclyde’s quality improvement officer, who is working on the Malawi Partnership added: “Kilmacolm Primary is one of a group of Inverclyde schools now linked with schools in Chiradzulu District in southern Malawi. We believe that pupils in both countries will gain from these links, and the excellent work schools like Kilmacolm Primary are doing is already bringing benefits. Young people in our schools are committed to helping their partners and are coming up with great ideas. The whole community will be working to support them in achieving their aims.”

Striking bus drivers trickle back to work as Malawi President lashes them

Blantyre, Malawi - President Bingu Wa Mutharika of Malawi has warned mi ni-bus operators in the country's cities his government would not be intimidated by strike actions to allow any section of the society break laws.

Speaking while inaugurating a new road in the central district of Ntchisi, Pre sident Mutharika said it was absurd for mini-bus operators to stage a strike sin c e nobody employed them to operate mini-buses.

"You mini-bus operators pack people as if you are carrying sweet potatoes; you don't care for people's lives. Many people are dying on our roads," he said in M alawi's lingual franca, Chichewa, amid applause from his audience.

"Government would not allow a situation where people will continue dying simpl y because you want to make money. No! It won't happen."

Mini-bus operators took their buses off the roads to protest a government dire ctive that mini-buses should be carrying three passengers per row, instead of th e current four.

Government said it made the directive because of high number of accidents invo lving mini-buses, which according to statistics, shows at least 20 per cent of a ll fatal accidents in Malawi involve mini-buses.

President Mutharika said his government would enforce laws that protect people 's lives and will deal decisively with anyone who defies such laws.

"I want to warn mini-bus owners that if in the past you were breaking the laws and nothing was happening, that time is over,"he said.

Meanwhile, mini-buses have slowly begun getting back on the roads.

According to Christopher Chisesele, president of the Mini-bus Owners Associati on of Malawi, the mini-bus operators have decided to relax the strike action in o rder to allow further negotiations with government.

"Our members want to reach an amicable settlement with government," he said.

But Transport Minister Henry Mussa said government was only implementing the c ountry's laws."We are only enforcing the laws," he said.

Commuters were Thursday forced to hoof it all the way to the office while othe rs clambered on top of open trucks to their destinations.

London-listed miner reports nickel deposit in southern Malawi

Exploration undertaken by UK-listed company Lisungwe plc in southern Malawi has established the existence of large nickel deposits at Chimimbe and Chimwadzulu.

Chairperson John Watkins says that the exploration work undertaken by the company, which includes a pitting programme, has confirmed that the two deposits contain several million tons of nickel ore – grading at better than 0,5% nickel – which is amenable to sulphuric acid leach extraction for the production of a nickel hydroxide product.

“It is possible that some of the nickel grades are high enough to justify direct shipping of the primary ore,” says Watkins.

Watkins also says that both deposits contain substantial amounts of ferrochrome/magnetite, with possible nickel and cobalt credits, which could be recovered easily by magnetic separation for sale as a separ-ate product in a process which would precede the acid leaching of nickel from nonmagnetic material.

He says both deposits remain open laterally.

Watkins says that, at Chimimbe, progress has been rapid since the granting of an exploration licence in May.

“The average depth of the pits is about 2 m, with some as deep as 7 m still in mineralisation,” he says.

Watkins adds that a routine programme of detailed deep pitting is currently in progress to a target depth of 6 m, with the expectation of establishing over six-million tons of resources.

He says that the pitting programme will be followed by a drilling programme, which will start within the next three months, with the objective of establishing the depth of mineralisation.

“Lisungwe is confident that a sufficiently large resource has been established to warrant a scoping study, which will indicate the actual value of the deposit and guide future exploration and development. This study will be a very significant step towards the establishment of a producing mine,” says Watkins. He states that Lisungwe intends to advance the Chimimbe project as quickly as possible, and is currently in the process of identifying two engineering groups with experience in nickel processing to carry out the study.

“One of the engineering groups, which will be appointed in the near future, will work with Lisungwe’s minerals processing consultant,” says Watkins.

He says the company has also identified an experienced mining engineer to advise on the most suitable mining method for the Chimimbe deposit.

“Lisungwe has already carried out preliminary work for a scoping study at Chimimbe and, at this stage, envisages a 1,2-million-ton-a-year operation, with production of ferrochrome by magnetic separa- tion, followed by acid leaching, to produce nickel hydroxide,” explains Watkins.

He says the firm has also produced estimates for the plant’s cost and staffing requirements, which will be refined by the scoping study.

“Transport is planned to be mainly by rail. A branch line, to the already established main line, located 12 km away, is to be constructed, and will terminate at the modern deep-sea port of Nacala, on the Mozambique coast.

“The electricity grid is 6 km away and has the capacity to supply the estimated 2-MW requirement.

“Abundant water will be obtained from boreholes to be drilled nearby,” says Watkins.

At Chimwadzulu, Watkins says his firm is negotiating with a local junior mining firm, called Nyala Mines, which has mineral rights over the area, in order to acquire a sublicence and continue with field programmes.

“Subject to the successful conclusion of negotiations with Nyala Mines, Lisungwe expects to follow a similar programme to produce a world class resource for Chimwadzulu,” says Watkins.

Spot prices for nickel, which is an essential ingredient in the pro-duction of stainless steel, are at about $30 000/t, whereas the Lisungwe profitability projections are premised on a conservative nickel price of $15 000/t.

“The forthcoming drilling programme and scoping study for Chimimbe are considered to be further stepping stones towards the development of Lisungwe’s first mine, which will be the first modern base-metal mine in Malawi,” comments Lisungwe MD Stuart Brand.

Lisungwe plc in listed on London’s Ofex market and, apart from nickel, the company is exploring for gold, platinum-group metals and uranium in Malawi.

U-17s Burst Into Cosafa Final

ZIMBABWE'S Young Warriors stayed on course for a second regional title when they stormed into the Cosafa Under-17 final after seeing off rivals Zambia in a closely contested semi-final at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in Windhoek, Namibia last night.

Rodwell Dhlakama's teenagers, holders of the Anoca Zone Six Games title, will now meet old enemies South Africa in the final at the same venue on Saturday night.

South Africa dismissed Malawi 1-0 in an earlier semi-final match the same venue.

Interestingly, the Under-17 side will find themselves in the same situation their Under-20 brothers were in Mpumalanga, South Africa last Sunday when Zimbabwe faced their southern neighbours in the Metropolitan Cosafa Under-20 final.

According to Zimbabwe head of delegation Solomon Mugavazi, the Young Warriors took the lead in the second half before allowing the Zambians to fight their way back and force the game into the penalty shoot-out lottery.

There was no extra time after regulation time with the teams proceeding straight into a shootout.

CAPS FC midfielder Archieford Gutu, who joined his teammates on Monday after doing duty for the Under-20 side in South Africa found the goal that gave Zimbabwe the lead in the 67th minute.

Gutu struck from the penalty spot after Namibian referee Arvo Mufeti adjudged that a Zambian defender had handled the ball inside the box in a bid to clear.

But just as it seemed the Young Warriors would win the game in regulation time, the Zambians equalised and forced the game into penalties.

It was now the turn of Aces Youth Academy goalkeeper George Chigowa to emerge the hero when he dived to save one of Zambia's five spot kicks that made all the difference and sent the Young Warriors, winners of Group C, into the final.

Mugavazi, naturally excited about his team's victory, said they had been anticipating a showdown with South Africa after watching their opponents win in Group A.

Zambia had also qualified for the semi-finals by virtue of winning Group B while Malawi went through to the last four after emerging as the best runners-up from the three groups at the tournament.

Mugavazi, however, predicted a tough final against the Amajimbos, as the South African Under-17 side are affectionately known.

"As I said before, these youngsters have been inspired by the Under-20 team's achievement and they would want to emulate that and I am glad we are now in the final against South Africa.

"We will only know what time the final will be played at the pre-match meeting because things keep changing here although we have noted that the organisers want most of the matches to be played at night as it is very hot during the day," Mugavazi said.

The Zifa board member also felt the pairing in the final was a "true reflection" of the two teams strength.

"I think it is a battle of the best teams at the tournament so far and it is going to be a very difficult match.

"The organisers suspended all the yellow cards accumulated in the round robin games, so from the semi-finals onwards teams have been able to field their strongest squads".

Mugavazi said although the Amajimbos had shown that they had been together for a long time, the Young Warriors had the arsenal to match them in Saturday's final that will be preceded by a third place play off-between Zambia and Malawi tomorrow.

"A final against South Africa is something we thought would happen judging from the way they have been playing.

"The South Africans play as a unit and are very organised and I think that gave them the edge in their earlier matches but I believe now they will meet their real match in the Young Warriors.

"The good thing is that we have not had to come from behind in all our matches and we intend to keep it that way until we win the cup.

"I must also pay tribute to the Zimbabweans who are in Namibia, they have come out in their numbers to support the teenagers and this has helped the youngsters feel at home.

"This kind of support is very critical when you travel away from home especially when you have youngsters," Mugavazi said.

Zimbabwe 1 Zambia 1

(Zimbabwe won 5-4 after penalties)