The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development has granted one of its first small-scale mining licences to the Mubende United Miners Assembly (MUMA) in Kassanda District.
The move seeks to promote responsible and inclusive gold mining, Agnes Alaba, the Commissioner for Geological Survey and Mines, says.
The licence enables MUMA to carry out small-scale gold mining on 100.8 acres of land in Kassanda.
Gold remains one of Uganda’s leading export commodities, contributing significantly to foreign exchange earnings, job creation, and national investment.
Speaking at the launch of the licence acquisition in Bukuya, Kassanda District, Alaba, who represented Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa, said the sector has long operated informally, noting that ‘Kassanda and Mubende are among the core centres of gold’.
She noted that the Mineral Development Sub-programme, now housed under the Extractives sector together with oil and gas, aims to increase exploration, exploitation, and value addition.
So far, eight small-scale and one artisanal mining licences have been issued, with Alaba noting that artisanal mining often serves as a pathfinder to key mineral deposits, with many large mining projects starting as artisanal operations.
The artisanal sub-sector employs more than 60 percent of Uganda’s mining workforce. Thus, the licence will be critical in formalizing the sector, which could widen government revenue, with minerals identified as a key driver of Uganda’s plan to expand the economy from $50b to $500b by 2040.
Currently, Kassanda and Mubende have more than 7,500 miners.
John Bosco Bukya, the chairperson of MUMA and Uganda Association of Artisanal and Small-scale Miners, said Solidaridad had been key in supporting the licensing process, which would now help in enhancing competitiveness and sustainable mineral development.
Government has been aligning the mineral sector with international best practices and has committed to supporting the development of artisanal mining and other sectors of the economy by upgrading the cadastral system to link with other information platforms to ease business, including planned integration with land information and environmental systems.