The Songwe Hill rare earths project in Malawi is being developed by Mkango Resources, a mineral exploration and development company based in Canada. Mkango owns the mine through its subsidiary, Lancaster Exploration.
The pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the mine was completed in 2014, while the definitive feasibility study (DFS) was completed in July 2022.
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The Malawi Environmental Protection Agency approved the environmental social health impact assessment for the project in January 2023.
In July 2024, Lancaster Exploration signed a mining development agreement with the Government of Malawi.
An updated feasibility study was completed in March 2026, along with a PFS for the Pulawy Rare Earth Separation Plant in Poland.
The project is estimated to have a life of mine of 18 years for an initial capital investment of approximately $325.5m (C$343.92m), while the initial capital for the Pulawy plant is estimated at $212m.
Ownership and investment details of Songwe Hill
The DFS for the Songwe Hill rare earths project was funded through a £12m ($15.79m) investment by Talaxis, a wholly owned subsidiary of Noble Group and developer of technology metals projects, under an agreement signed in November 2017.
Talaxis planned to invest the £12m in three tranches in return for a 49% interest in the project. The company also had an option to acquire another 26% in Songwe Hill by arranging funding to develop the project.
Mkango commenced the feasibility study for the project after receiving a £5m investment in Lancaster Exploration from Talaxis in January 2018 in return for a 20% interest in Lancaster.
Talaxis also invested £1m in Maginito, another subsidiary of Mkango, in return for a 24.5% interest in Maginito.
Mkango received an additional investment of £7m in Lancaster in March 2019, increasing Talaxis’ interest in Lancaster from 20% to 49%, with Mkango holding the remaining 51%.
Mkango signed an agreement with Talaxis in August 2021 to acquire the latter’s 49% interest in Lancaster and 24.5% interest in Maginito. The transaction was completed in November 2021 and enabled Mkango to gain a 100% interest in the Songwe Hill mine.
In January 2025, Mkango’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Lancaster Exploration and Mkango Polska, entered into a non-binding letter of intent for a proposed business combination with Crown PropTech Acquisitions (CPTK), an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
The proposed transaction aims to establish a vertically integrated, global rare earths pure-play platform, with the intention that the Class A ordinary shares of CPTK’s successor company will be listed on the Nasdaq.
Under the envisaged structure, the listed company would own Mkango’s Songwe Hill rare earths project and the planned separation plant in Pulawy, Poland. A definitive business combination agreement was signed in July 2025.
In February 2026, Mkango Rare Earths and Crown PropTech Acquisitions confidentially filed a draft Form F-4 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Following completion of the SEC review and other standard closing conditions, including shareholder approvals on both sides, the company expects its shares and warrants to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the tickers MKAR and MKARW when the deal closes.
Songwe Hill location
Songwe Hill is situated in south-eastern Malawi, between Lake Chilwa and the Mulanje Massif. The property lies around 70km from the old capital, Zomba, and 90km from the commercial centre of Blantyre.
The Songwe Hill deposit has an 800m diameter and features steep sides. Carbonatite, fenite and breccias of fenite clasts with carbonatite matrix are the main lithologies at the deposit.
The carbonatites are primarily grey calcic carbonatites, while the fenites mainly comprise K-feldspar rocks.
Geology and mineralisation
The main rock types comprise carbonatite, fenite and breccias made up of fenite fragments within a carbonatite matrix. The carbonatites are predominantly grey, calcic varieties, with lesser amounts of ferrocarbonatite. The fenites are mainly potassium feldspar-rich rocks, forming an aureole around the carbonatite as well as fragmented dyke material within it.
Rare earth element (REE) mineralisation is hosted across the carbonatites, fenites and breccias. It remains untested to the north-east and south-west beyond the current drilling footprint, and at depth below the deepest vertical intersection at roughly 360m beneath the hill surface. The principal REE-bearing minerals are synchysite and apatite.
Songwe Hill rare earths project reserves
The proven and probable mineral reserves at Songwe Hill Rare Earths project are estimated at 18.14 million tonnes (mt) grading 1.16% total rare earth oxides (TREO) with 210,984t in contained TREOs as of April 2025.
Mining and processing at Songwe Hill
Open-pit mining will be employed at Songwe using relatively small trucks and diesel-hydraulic excavators that will be chosen based on the mining conditions and desired production rates.
The final pit will measure 660m from north to south and 550m from east to west. It will extend up to a depth of 354m on the south side and 134m on the north side.
The processing facility is expected to underpin an average output of 5,954 tonnes per annum (tpa) of TREO over the first five full years of operations. Within this, production is forecast to include 1,953tpa of neodymium and praseodymium oxides and 56tpa of dysprosium and terbium oxides, based on a mixed rare earth carbonate product grading 55% TREO on a dry basis.
Construction of the process plant is scheduled to begin in April 2027, with commissioning set to start in October 2028.
The production ramp-up is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2029 (Q2 2029) and conclude in Q1 2030.
The recovered ore will undergo hydrometallurgy processing comprising gangue leach and acid regeneration using sulphuric acid, followed by caustic conversion of gangue leach residue and caustic evaporation and regeneration. The caustic conversion residue will be leached to recover rare earth minerals, followed by purification and precipitation to produce mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC).
The purified MREC is due to be processed at the proposed Pulawy rare earths separation plant that will produce neodymium, praseodymium, didymium oxides, rare earth-enriched carbonate and lanthanum cerium carbonate.
Mkango and Grupa Azoty Pulawy, a chemical company based in Poland, are collaborating on the construction of the separation plant.
Infrastructure at the Songwe Hills rare earths project
The Songwe Hill rare earths project has reliable rail, road and electrical infrastructure as well as ongoing development of new infrastructure. The mine can be reached by road from Blantyre, Malawi’s major economic hub, which includes a railhead and international airport.
Paved roads connect urban areas within 12km of the project. Vehicle access to the site is provided by secondary gravel and dirt roads and recently upgraded bridges that can allow 20t trucks.
The Malawi grid network is expected to supply 25MW of power needed by the project. Electricity required for the Songwe project will be supplied through a 25MW solar facility that will be supplemented with grid power. Mkango is also considering wind power to further enhance and diversify the renewable energy mix.
Water for processing and potable use is expected to be sourced from groundwater.
Contractors involved
The PFS for the proposed separation plant at Pulawy was completed by PRODEO Consulting.
Mkango contracted SENET, a DRA Global company, to serve as the lead consultant for the DFS and updated DFS.
Mining and mineral processing company Bara Consulting developed the mine plan.
The MSA Group, an exploration, geology and mineral resource estimation consulting business, completed geology, mineral resource and geotechnical investigation works, while mineral processing consultancy Grinding Solutions and Keramos were responsible for comminution.
Other consultants involved in the DFS include Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (hydrometallurgy), KYSPY Investments and ALS Metallurgy (flotation), Epoch (tailings storage), SGS Australia (geochemistry) and Steinweg Bridge (logistics).
The environmental, social and health impact assessment was carried out by environmental consultancy Digby Wells Environmental and Kongiwe Environmental.
Market intelligence was supplied by Adamas Intelligence, an independent research and advisory company.
