‘The resource curse in Mwaulambo’ is a new film made by Jacqueline Chiwale about Eland Coal Mining Company’s abandoned coal mine in Karonga, Malawi. Norwegian oil magnate Berge Gerdt Larsen has a stake in the mine, according to Human Rights Watch.

You can watch it online now.

Eland Coal Mining Company (Malawi) was covered in Human Rights Watch report ‘They Destroyed Everything: Mining and Human Rights in Malawi‘ produce in 2016. Over a year later, the film shows that rehabilitation of the mine site has still not happened.

Mwabulambo coal mine, an open pit mine located 30 kilometers north of the district capital, is operated by Eland Coal Mining Company, a Malawian company. Eland is a subsidiary of the Isle of Man based Heavy Mineral Limited, which is in turn owned by Independent Oil & Resources PLC, a company based in Cyprus.^[80] Over 70 percent of Independent Oil & Resources PLC is owned by the Norwegian oil magnate Berge Gerdt Larsen and members of his family.^[81] The coal mine is located on a flat and fertile area near Lake Malawi where residents have traditionally relied on subsistence farming, especially rice farming. It is unclear when and if operations will resume after they stopped in 2015. According to information given by Jan Egil Moe, chairman of the board of Independent Oil & Resources PLC, in July 2015, “Eland Coal Mine has suspended operations as the operations were not sustainable, and is in the process of being liquidated.”^[82] However, site visits in August 2015 and March 2016 suggested that the company still employs a local watchman and has not started rehabilitating the area.