Mining Indaba: Community Voices | Rewriting Malawi’s Gemstone Story

This is the first of three Community Voices podcasts, as part of the Mining Indaba 2026 special podcast series. 

This podcast focusses on Yamikani Jimusole - a Malawian miner, gemologist, entrepreneur and visionary leader. Yamikani is one of the winners of this year’s Community Voices competition, run by The Impact Facility and the Mining Indaba organisers. 

A gemologist by training, Yamikani has identified more than 25 gemstone varieties across Malawi, including rubies, sapphires, grandidierite, Spinel , tourmaline, zircon and aquamarine. His company, Yami Gemstone Lab & Exports (YAGLE) was established in 2018, with ethical sourcing, beneficiation, and transparent trade of Malawi’s gemstones at the core of its vision and ethos.

Speakers include:

• Assheton Stewart Carter | Executive Chair & Founder, TDi Sustainability
• Yamikani Jimusole | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Yami Gemstone Lab & Exports (YAGLE) 

This episode is part of the TDi Sustainability special series of podcasts produced for the Mining Indaba event that will take place in Cape Town between 9th – 12th February 2026. Find out more about the event>

Transcript

Welcome to Suits & Boots and the Mining Indaba 2026 Series

Assheton Stewart Carter 0:09

Hello and welcome to this special edition of Suits and Boots, the TDI podcast series in conjunction with the Investing in African Mining Indaba. In this series, we discuss some of the key themes that will be covered at the 2026 Mining Indaba Conference. I'm Ashton Stewart Carter, Executive Chair at TDI Sustainability, and Board Member and Chief Investment Officer at the Impact Facility. Today, we're joined by one of the winners of this year's Community Voices competition run by the Impact Facility and the Mining Indaba organizers. Yamikani Jimusole is a Malawian miner, entrepreneur, and a visionary leader. Now, this theme today is really very special to me. I founded the Impact Facility for Sustainable Mining Communities about eight years ago with the specific purpose of investing into mining communities. Back in the day, way back in the day, I researched and wrote my PhD thesis on how mining communities are often overlooked or do not have the skills or the political power to take advantage of mineral resources and mineral development. I worked for 12 years in international NGOs promoting ways to drive economic development to mining communities. And then about eight years ago, I started the Impact Facility and the Impact Capital Limited to invest into mining communities, SMEs, into small enterprises around development and where mineral deposits lie. And especially in artisanal mining communities. The Impact Facility is now investing in the DLC, Tanzania, Kenya, and some West African countries too. And a big shout out here for the Mining Indaba as they realized a few years ago that mining communities need a louder voice at the Indaba event, a platform, if you want. And so together with the Impact Facility and Indaba, we conceived community voices to get leaders, entrepreneurs, and activists in the mining sector to the Indaba, which has up until quite recently been mostly corporate and international financing attendees at the conference. So this is the second or maybe the third year that it's that we've been doing the community voices, and it's really important and fantastic for me to see at the Indaba and hear from these community leaders such as Yami Khani. So it's a thrill for me to have Yamikani on this podcast and to hear what he has to say from his perspective, which still isn't heard as much as it should be heard. So Yami kani, we've got some serious topics today to speak about. But first of all, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your a little bit more about your journey, some of the passion that drove you to become an entrepreneur in the coloured gemstone sector. And you're a gemologist by training, I think. Tell us a little bit about your journey and how you began and what inspired you to get into this business.

Training as a Gemologist and Building Malawi’s Gemstone Hub

Why Coloured Gemstone Mining Is High Risk and Mostly Artisanal

Yamikani Jimusole 3:47

So she called me this other day to find out if uh I know anything about the gemstone industry. So I said no. So she said uh I've been uh traveling around Malawi and I've seen a lot of people uh mining gemstones. Uh perhaps you can conduct research on uh aquamarine. Uh so basically I started my journey uh with uh desk research, and uh I was very impressed uh with uh what I saw on the internet. Uh tiny gemstones fetching a lot of money. Uh so in 2014, an opportunity came and I was able to visit uh one of the mines uh in Zimba, uh the northern part of Malawi. I stayed there for uh uh four weeks and uh I was just observing. Uh but uh when I uh went back to Branty, I uh submitted a report uh to my sister on how uh they can improve workers' welfare as well as uh they can improve on production. Uh so later on uh she called me again to say, I've partnered with a woman in um Zimba. Uh we are planning to start mining aquamarine. Uh so if you are interested, uh you can join us. Uh so I joined them in 2014 as a volunteer manager, and uh I resigned in uh 2016. Uh I wanted to focus uh more on exploration. Uh, but we had another meeting with my sister, and uh she suggested that uh I should start uh uh looking for uh gemology colleges. Uh so uh I settled for Gemology Institute of America, uh GIA, and I chose uh Thailand campus uh simply because uh uh Thailand is considered uh the gemstone hub. Uh when I came back, I uh established uh gemstone rub and exports. Uh that was uh in uh February uh 2018.

Malawi’s Resource Curse: Rich Geology, Limited National Benefit

Assheton Stewart Carter 5:57

That's a great story, and I I have to be transparent that I have a personal interest in this because my my son is also a gemologist, but he studied and is a graduate from a rival school from GemA in London. But um we decided he should have a go at that, partly because I've been so inspired by many of the colored gemstones I've seen in um in Africa. You know, one thing I think our podcasters should realize of um about your story is that colored gemstone mining is a very high-risk business. It's not like gold mining or it's not like um base metal mining, in that it's each individual stone is where the value lies. So you can't just crush for stone and hope to get an aggregate value for your product. You have to understand each individual stone and how to remove that without damaging that value. And so the gemology piece is important, but it's also it's high risk. And also, our listeners might not know that coloured gemstone mining in particular is mostly artisanal. You know, 90 plus percent is done through artisanal extraction. So making a living out of this and enabling your community to benefit from this is no easy task and it's very high risk. So I think this is very much take our hats off to um this endeavor.

Yamikani Jimusole 7:19

Thank you.

Missing Systems: Grading, Certification, and Appraisal Gaps

Assheton Stewart Carter 7:20

So going a little bit into the um some of the challenges that that that we face, and and I think we heard that in your inspirational story of how you came to do this in the first place, in your community voices application to the Indaba, you raised a very striking question. It's how can a country as geologically rich as Malawi remain so economically poor from its gemstones, what academics call the resource cusp? So I guess through your own experience and through your travels through your country, what have you uncovered about the root of this disparity between the mineral wealth and the national benefit? Malawi is rich in these minerals, and so why isn't it benefiting?

How Many Hands Touch a Gemstone Before Export?

Yamikani Jimusole 8:08

Uh well, uh now as a gemologist, uh I thought it wise uh to first conduct uh a research uh to study the gemstone landscape of Malawi. Uh when I was doing that, I discovered that uh Malawi uh actually hosts some of the most exotic uh gemstones in the world. Uh we are talking of graniderite, uh rubies, paparasha, sapphire, spinails, tomarine, aquamarines. Uh so actually I was very disturbed uh because uh I couldn't understand uh why uh Malawi was still among the five poorest nations uh in the world. Uh so I conducted the research and uh I discovered that uh even though the government uh accredited gemologists uh between 2014 and uh 2024, uh but uh the country uh still lacked uh uh proper grading certification as well as uh uh appraisal systems. Uh so uh normally uh grading process, uh this is a process whereby a qualified gemologist or a qualified uh uh grader uh evaluates the gemstone uh based on the forces, uh, which is color, cut, clarity, and uh also caratweight, uh, just to assess uh the gemstone value. Uh whereas uh certification, uh this is now a process whereby uh a third party, whether a credit gemologist or a uh a laboratory, uh they now offer the gemstone uh and they do issue a report. Uh so basically, apart from the forces, they're also looking at uh determining whether the gemstone is 100% natural or whether the gemstone has undergone any enhancements, uh, maybe to improve color clarity uh and also to determine uh the origin. Uh so uh at the end they do issue uh a gemstone report, others call it a certificate. Uh this certificate is very important uh because it brings uh confidence as well as trust. And finally, uh we have uh appraisal uh report. This is uh done by an accredited jewelry appraiser. Uh then the purpose is to ensure that uh uh he puts a money monetary value uh on the gemstone. Uh this uh appraisal report uh could be useful for insurance purposes, uh fair market value, uh estate purposes, or even um uh you can secure Iran uh using uh such documents. Uh so uh overall, uh these are processes are there to ensure that uh the sellers, uh the buyers, as well as the owners are aware uh of your value of the gemstone.

Assheton Stewart Carter 11:20

Fascinating. And just to continue the explainer a little bit more, can you explain the local supply chain? So how many hands does a gemstone pass through before it gets to export from the digger, from the mine site through to the actual export?

Yamikani Jimusole 11:40

I would say a lot, uh, because uh we have so many foreigners around. Uh so basically uh these uh they do go to the remote areas, uh they do access gemstones from the small scale miners. Uh so uh uh I believe uh uh should be several hands.

Quantifying Lost Value in Malawi’s Gemstone Trade

Assheton Stewart Carter 12:03

Right. And so really what you're saying, I think, is two things is one, as a country, uh Malawi hasn't um understood correctly, or um it's the value that it has under the earth in the gemstone deposits, and so it's unable to bargain effectively at the kind of the point of export. And I think the other thing that you're or at least I'm inferring is that because there are many links in the chain from mine to export, that wealth doesn't trickle down necessarily because the expertise is held overseas. So there's a sort of disparity here in the power dynamics surrounding knowledge, and so the campaign here has been to um ensure that that knowledge goes as near to the ground as it possibly can do to increase that negotiating power. I guess my kind of curiosity here is since you've been doing this since 2018, have you been able to get an idea of how much value has been uh lost, how much opportunity has been lost in Malawi in the gemstone trade in financial terms?

Trust, Misrepresentation, and the Challenge of Synthetic Stones

Yamikani Jimusole 13:14

Uh well um I would say a lot, uh, but I can't really quantify. Uh an example of uh an evaluation, uh the Malawi government uh economic report uh of 2024 reported that uh Marawi exported about 793 metric tons of uh uh gemstones uh in 2023, uh value that's uh slightly above uh $300,000. Uh so you can actually see that uh uh that's just peanuts. Uh how can uh uh 793 tons, the government only uh getting uh 300,000. Uh so it's sad. In the absence of expertise, uh, it means that uh we cannot really negotiate or we don't have bargaining power. I'll give you an example of one of the oldest uh Rumi deposits in Malawi, uh the Chimwazuru mine, uh, which was founded, I think it was first reported in the 1920s, but to date uh the country hasn't really benefited anything. Uh and uh uh in 2022 we saw the government uh uh showing one of the off-takers uh from the US uh for an exaggerated claim of 309.6 billion, uh, which implied that probably the miner could have uh maybe generated over a trillion, uh, which is which is just insane. Uh so uh lack of uh expertise uh has also contributed a lot uh because we are failing to negotiate uh uh contracts properly.

Assheton Stewart Carter 14:59

That's fascinating. I got a couple of questions come out of there. Um and I want to get on a little bit to the the value and where that value lies. But you you know basically what you're saying is that when a gemstone goes through its journey and it's finally uh cut, polished, treated, and set, the value that the consumer or the value that the consumer-facing brand gets in uh most of European, Middle East, um, US markets is many times greater than the value that is generated in the country and especially at the mine. But one thing you um alluded to there was trust, and you said in the same sentence, synthetic gemstones as well. So is the issue around synthetics coming into the market, or is the issue around a breakdown in trust? Um and I asked that because in some ways synthetic stones are just a stone. So as long as they are, if you're transparent about it being synthetic, then people can make a choice where they want a synthetic stone or um one which is dug out of the ground, natural stone. So is it the trust or is it just the entry of synthetics, which is a challenge?

Yamikani Jimusole 16:12

Uh I would say uh uh most people are very excited uh when they hear about uh gemstones, uh, but uh uh they don't really have uh technical technical expertise. Uh so there's uh a lot of uh misrepresentation, uh actually deliberate uh misrepresentation. And uh a couple a number of times I think I've seen uh people actually getting uh fake uh uh uh reports uh not issued by the ministry, but uh they will take you to the ministry and uh somehow they'll manage to get those reports to you. And you think that uh these uh reports uh originating from the ministry. So it's uh an issue of uh misrepresentation.

Government Export Bans and Enforcement Challenges

Assheton Stewart Carter 17:02

Yeah, that's interesting. Yes, I think what you're saying is that people still value a story where they understand the provenance of a stone and the the kind of naturalness of it. I mean, I certainly do. I think that's very romantic that you get a um a gem hunter which is harvesting stones um from a natural setting and how it travels down the supply chain, but it's really the absence of the systems that you're talking about, which doesn't allow people to act on that um sense of value. So, what's the government doing about this? I think they've done quite a bit and they've actually banned the export of gemstones at one stage.

Beneficiation in Malawi: Ambition vs Capacity

Yamikani Jimusole 17:41

Uh well, uh I would say that uh uh in uh uh February last year, uh after government officials, including the former uh vice president, Dr. Michael Usi, they saw that uh Marawi isn't uh really benefiting from the gemstone sector. Uh so accord according to them, uh they discovered that the mini ministry of mining and the mining and uh regulator authority uh were to blame uh simply because uh uh they do not have uh uh the systems. Uh so uh I would say that uh this ban uh was meant uh for the Ministry of Mining and uh authority to fix uh the evaluation system. And uh I fully supported this move because uh we had been advocating on the same uh since uh 2022. Uh so uh basically uh the message that uh government was trying to send uh was that uh uh government was now aware of the importance and potential of the uh gemstone industry and that it was ready to adopt uh transparent systems. Uh initially, uh the ban was actually supposed to last uh 21 days, uh, but uh from the onset, uh we said that uh that was impossible because uh fixing variation systems uh meant that uh the government either could have hired uh accredited experts or train uh the experts, uh, which could take uh maybe uh a year or so. Uh so in October as well, uh we had an executive order uh by the president uh banning raw uh gemstone exports and other minerals. Uh but here I should also uh emphasize that uh this ban has always been there, uh, but uh uh the authorities uh weren't uh really enforcing uh the ban.

Assheton Stewart Carter 19:44

Yeah, so the idea was there, the idea was good, but um it wasn't enacted. Um so these things are good, and as long as you follow through, I understand. But do you think they should go further? Because as I said, the um as I mentioned, the The value, if you look at the value chain of gemstones, most of the value is at the retail end. Um, when the gemstone has been transformed and set. Should we should the government be looking at beneficiation? In fact, I think they did look at beneficiation in country. Um, is that something that should be happening in Malawi?

Global Gemstone Hubs and the Limits of In-Country Processing

Yamikani Jimusole 20:20

Yeah, of course, uh, we need uh beneficiation. Uh, but uh what government is suggesting is uh now uh mass uh beneficiation. Uh we can do this in phases uh because uh at the moment we still have uh some critical gaps. Uh we are lacking accredited laboratories uh that can certify the gemstones. Uh we don't have uh uh gemstone manufacturing facilities. Uh the government has only had one, I think, uh, which cannot even process about two tan. Uh so I believe uh uh we should be realistic. Uh of course, uh, in terms of uh markets, uh uh there's uh export development fund, uh EDF, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank. Uh they started buying uh gemstones uh in 2023, uh, but uh they were only buying uh raw gemstones, and there's also a new uh government mining uh company called Mamiko. They're also planning uh to start uh trading gemstones. So perhaps maybe these organizations uh will open up uh market for uh the processed uh uh uh gemstones.

Assheton Stewart Carter 21:37

And it's difficult, isn't it? Because you spent some time in Thailand, and Thailand is one of the hubs um for gemstone everything, for the gemstone market, as is Sri Lanka, certain extent, Japan and India. And the reason why Thailand is a hub is because it takes in gemstones from many different countries, and it's be able it's able to match colour and um weight, size to make up different collections. Um, and so in some ways, that's how the gemstone trade works with these individual stones. It's hard for any one country to get um off takers for their production rather than um rather than export it to hubs where there can be greater value um aggregation through aggregation. Do you do you see that as being a problem just for the nature of the colored gemstone market?

Online Platforms, COVID, and Market Access Barriers

Yamikani Jimusole 22:32

Actually, uh that is what is supposed to happen. Uh I mean, uh currently Malawi doesn't have um uh the capacity. Uh uh also uh since most miners haven't yet secured uh markets, uh this might also lead to loss of business. Uh and also uh we we can we're gonna see a lot of uh uh smuggling. Uh and also uh due to the fact that at the moment Malawi doesn't have skilled uh artisans, uh rapidarians, uh cutters, uh then we're also gonna see a lot of uh substandard uh uh uh products uh on the market.

Assheton Stewart Carter 23:21

Yeah, no, I understood. And over COVID, one thing that we noticed, well, before COVID, you know, the gemstone industry had behaved, has behaved for many hundreds of years, and it's very much um a personal industry built on trust and hand-to-hand exchanges. Over COVID, we saw the rise of online platforms to market gemstones. Has that facilitated what you're trying to achieve in Malawi, some of these online platforms, being able to market and describe your stones and provide the authentication certifications online?

Community Benefit Sharing in Artisanal Gemstone Mining

Yamikani Jimusole 24:01

Uh maybe to some extent, uh, because uh personally, uh, due to the lack of systems, I haven't sold any gemstone since 2018. Uh so imagine if the ban was being imposed, if I was uh also participating, uh then people would have uh lost trust in my expertise. Uh so uh in my case, uh managed to start uh uh asserting. Uh but however I've seen a couple of Malawians uh they are using online platforms, uh, but uh out there people are looking for certified gemstones. So it is too hard for them uh to do proper uh business.

Assheton Stewart Carter 24:46

So changing um changing direction a little bit, at the beginning I pointed out that gemstone mining is mostly um, you know, 90 plus percent is done by artisanal miners. And that's one thing which attracted it, attracted me to it, and I found very interesting because it then holds out the promise that um communities who are actually doing the digging can benefit from it, and automation isn't easy in gemstones because you have to take pay such attention to the individual stones you're taking from the ground. So, can we talk a little bit about benefit sharing and community participation? Because I know this is very much something that you're passionate about. How do you go about doing this in Malawi? What are some of the challenges and what's the sort of a landscape of community participation in artisanal mining or gemstone mining generally?

Yamikani Jimusole 25:42

Uh so in our case, uh, since we understand uh the various of these things, uh, uh we are actually uh proposing that uh we're gonna do profit uh sharing with the community and also partake uh in uh infrastructure development, uh in health, uh also in uh uh education, uh apart from uh providing employment. So we kind of want to uh read by example uh because uh we are willing to uh uh give the community up to uh 10% of our annual uh profits. And uh this is totally different even from the bigger uh mining companies, uh which uh uh they I think according to them um through the act uh they they are allowed to contribute uh should be 0.025 percent to the community, uh which is very, very sad uh considering that uh the communities are actually uh the owners of these uh the uh minerals.

The Role of African Institutions, Investors, and Collaboration

Assheton Stewart Carter 26:50

I think that's a great I think that's a great um that's a great story. And 10%, as you said, is very is very significant. And increasing automation in the large industrial mining sector, you know, it's becoming harder to see what are the direct benefits for communities. So being able to share that, I think is uh very laudable and hopefully replicable. So we talked a little bit about what the government of Malawi is doing and perhaps um where it faces challenges and could do more in a world where we're seeing the emergence of blocs and regional powers, um, and everybody knows that Africa holds many of the minerals that are needed by the rest of the world. Is there a role, do you think, from your perspective, for African regional institutions to play a role in supporting the gemstone industry across Africa and of course to positively affect Malawi as well?

Messages for Mining Indaba 2026

Yamikani Jimusole 27:52

Uh yes, of course. Uh of course, at the moment the African Union is advancing the African Mining Vision, AMV, and uh uh it is projecting that uh the gem and jewelry industry uh is worth about 20 billion. Uh so actually Africa isn't just a producer of raw materials, but uh it is also becoming a market uh for uh our own uh gemstones. Uh in terms of development partners, uh I've also seen UNDP and Road Bank, uh, they are doing much, uh, only that uh uh maybe some countries are not really taking up uh their recommendations. Uh for example, in 2019, uh the World Bank actually conducted a technical exercise on Malawi's uh mining industry. Uh, and uh they did discover all these things lack of standardization due to lack of accredited laboratories. Uh so to now, uh to date, uh the government is yet to uh implement uh some of the recommendations. Uh in terms of uh private sector, I would say that uh the opportunities are endless uh from exploration, mining, beneficiation. Uh so uh investors uh are welcome uh to come to Africa uh to set up accredited laboratories, processing facilities, and uh they can also provide mining equipment. Uh, and above all, maybe investment banks uh terror specifically uh for uh maybe the Gemstone industry or the mining industry at Raj. Uh then uh I think binary collaboration, uh, we need collaboration. We should realize that uh uh we cannot advance without knowledge. Uh so I would urge uh Africa uh to uh range from the best. They should collaborate with the rights of responsible jewelry council, uh uh International Coloured Gemstone Association, ICA, uh also World Jewelry Confederation, CBJO. Uh they could also partner up with uh Genealogical Schools uh like GMWA in Rwanda, as well as GIA. Uh collaboration is the only way uh that will uh help us to uh benefit from our resources.

Closing Reflections and Looking Ahead to Indaba

Assheton Stewart Carter 30:31

Thank you so much for those messages. Um I think you are a great ambassador for not only your country but for the continent. And going into the mining in Darwin 2026, I hope we'll get the chance to give some of these messages, relay some of these messages to the investors and government representatives um that are there. And I I I guess what I hear from you and what I hear from many people of our colleagues in Africa is the the potential of Africa in this sector is vast. Um we just need people to share a little bit of faith and take that first step into the dark and um begin to invest and support enterprises like yours. And just just to finish, are there any um concluding remarks you'd like to make um and perhaps any messages you would like to take with you to the mining, DABRA, in a couple of weeks' time?

Yamikani Jimusole 31:30

Uh well um uh uh I've been um uh wanting to attend the Mining Indaba uh for quite some time now. Uh but uh since we are not really generating any income, uh that hasn't been uh the case. Uh so this time around, I'm very happy uh to attend the Indaba, and I'm hoping to network with different players uh in the extractive industry and also showcase Malawi Gemstone industry and probably attract investors and partners to collaborate uh maybe on exploration, mining, and beneficiation.

Assheton Stewart Carter 32:14

Well, thank you so much, um Yami kani Jimusole for joining us today on and telling us your story and your hopes. And I can't help but believe that you'll be very successful at the Indaba in getting your messages across and attaching, attracting attention to the work that you're work that you're doing because it is um very inspiring. Um and thank you for our listeners for joining us today. Uh, please check out the rest of this special series of Mining Indaba podcasts on the TDI Suits and Boots Podcast channel. I look forward to seeing you at the Indaba event in February, where you can hear more from um Yamikani and the other community voices 2026 winners. I'm Ashen Stewart Carter, and thank you for listening.