It has been 5 years! On 18 November 2012, I started Mining in Malawi. At first, I chose to blog anonymously and then I lifted the veil a year and a half later.

There have been some great external contributors and in 2014 I joined forces with Marcel Chimwala, editor of Malawi’s Mining & Trade Review, to publish the Review’s articles online. I always welcome guest posts and one of our most viewed pieces this year was written by Chikomeni Manda, a champion of Malawi’s artisanal and small-scale mining sector.

624 posts have been shared over the last 5 years. 150,000+ visitors have viewed over 300,000 different pages and it is increasing year on year. During the first 11 months of 2017 alone, the blog has been visited by 31,000+ people who viewed 73,000+ posts. Mining in Malawi has over 6,000 followers, mostly on social media, and 400+ of you have signed up to receive the posts by email. Thank you!

The top three pages visited this year:

1. Opportunities and challenges to invest and do business in Malawi – Invest Africa KPMG Television Show
2. Gemstone Mining in Mzimba, Malawi – Experiences from small scale miner Chikomeni Manda
3. About

And Oxfam Malawi’s ‘Malawi’s Troubled Oil Sector: Licences, Contracts and their Implications‘ has been the most downloaded document this year.

In 2017, the highest number of views are in Malawi, USA, South Africa, UK, and India.

As people sometimes ask me, I run this blog for free (it costs me personally in time and paying for the domain and hosting). My monthly column ‘Eye on Malawi’s Extractives’ in the Mining & Trade Review is also written for no charge.

Thank you for all the interesting in-person opportunities and virtual connections over the years. I always appreciate hearing from you – with information, questions, comments, feedback, and contributions! Please keep them coming. – Rachel Etter-Phoya