In this investigation, Chikondi Mphande exposes how desperation for income is driving villagers into informal, illegal gold mines, where safety is non-existent and death is a constant shadow.

Kasungu stands as a grim example. Eight people died when a gold mine collapsed, turning a hunt for treasure into a hunt for bodies.

Illegal mining operations are tied to networks of greedy officials who prioritize profit over human life—a negligence that has led to preventable tragedies.

While local miners perish underground, the Reserve Bank of Malawi continues to cash in.

Gold mining should be a story of riches and prosperity. Instead, it has become a tale of horror. 

On 30 September 2025, Gogodi village under Traditional Authority (T/A) Chitanthamapiri was filled not with celebration, but with weeping, fear, and death.

Men, women, and children were buried alive in collapsing tunnels.

Happy Mhinje survived with a broken arm.

"We shouted for help. The ground kept sinking. I was lucky—I was pulled out. But I still see their faces when I sleep."

The human cost of Malawi’s informal gold rush keeps rising. Families mourn while the trade continues, feeding a chain that stretches from rural pits to elite buyers.

Amon Ntonga lost his wife in the collapse. He now raises four children alone.

"She went to the mine for piece work. She died when it collapsed. I am struggling to care for our children," he says.

Ntonga is one of eight families grieving. Victims of poverty, hunger, and unregulated mining with no safety standards, no supervision, and no rescue capacity.

Gogodi is only one of five illegal mining sites under T/A Chitanthamapiri. None are licensed. None are regulated.

Men descend ten meters underground with homemade torches strapped to their foreheads. Women and children sieve mercury-tainted water for traces of gold.

"It is not easy. We risk our lives every day. Poverty forces us to keep digging with hoes," says a local miner.

Group Village Headman Kasalika laments:
"Despite living near the gold mine, most people remain poor. There is no water, no school, no health facility. Hunger drives them into these pits, risking their lives."

The irony is stark: villagers risk death, while outsiders and middlemen reap the profits. Fertile lands have become graveyards. Graveyards of greed!

Village Headman Chitekete adds:
"Despite warnings, people dig without protective equipment. Poverty and hunger push them into cracked mines. It is dangerous."

Dealers—some from outside Kasungu—buy gold on-site, sometimes for as little as K200 per kilo, before reselling to middlemen. Eventually, the gold reaches the Reserve Bank of Malawi.

The Mining and Minerals Act demands licensing, safety inspections, and closure plans. Yet councils lack power to regulate artisanal mining.

Brakston Banda, Chairperson of the Kasungu civil society organisations (CSO) Network, warns:
"Elite groups and politicians front villagers who are untrained and unequipped. We engaged government, but people in Kasungu are not benefiting from the gold mine."

Reserve Bank spokesperson Boston Maliketi admits concern:
"We are worried citizens are dying to find the gold RBM is buying. 

" We are working with the Ministry of Mining and Labour to ensure safety. Currently, RBM has spent over K127 billion to buy 530 kilograms of gold."

Villagers believe middlemen are linked to politically connected individuals with direct access to the central bank. 

The gap between official statements and the miners’ reality grows wider with every shovel of soil. More deaths, more profits.

After the Gogodi collapse killed eight, mining was briefly suspended. Days later, two more miners were buried alive.

Ten deaths in weeks — just a glimpse of a larger national tragedy. Poverty, desperation, and systemic neglect are quietly claiming lives.

Unless policy safeguards are enforced, another tragedy is inevitable. Sooner or later. 

Artisanal miners will not stop. Not while poverty keeps biting, and daily survival demands cash.