November 7 was a momentous day in Bukuya Town Council, Kassanda District as the local mining community celebrated the official commencement of legal gold mining operations under the Mubende United Miners’ Assembly’s (MUMA) Small-Scale Mining License (SML 00575). The five-year license authorises MUMA to carry out small-scale gold mining operations over 100.8 hectares of land in Bukuya. The license itself was originally issued on June 25, the fourth of eight small-scale mining licenses issued so far.
The government had for a long time placed a huge question mark over our operations as artisanal and small scale miners (ASMs). Its concerns: that we were mining illegally and not paying taxes, employing child labour, hiring foreign nationals in a trade ring-fenced for locals and using dangerous chemicals and mercury which was destroying the environment, among many other issues.
This was what had culminated in our abrupt eviction from the Greater Mubende gold mining areas on August 4, 2017 by security forces as the government sought to formalise our operations. While that experience had left many of us in a state of despair, we refused to give up. With the help of civil society organisations (CSOs), we remobilised, organised and put our house in order. It’s from these efforts that not only MUMA but also the Uganda Association of Artisanal and Small Scale Miners Limited (UGAASM) emerged. I chair both entities.
Fast forward, our negotiations with the State initially saw ASMs granted location licenses – which were the only available legal document under the Mining Act, 2003, to enable us mine formally. Later this law was repealed and replaced by the Mining and Minerals Act, 2022 that officially recognised ASMs – introducing the artisanal and small-scale mining licenses. In June this year, MUMA was granted the fourth small-scale mining license by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development after fulfilling all the legal, financial and technical requirements before being licensed – and then the real work officially commenced on November 7.
What a turn-around!
So why is this good news for Uganda? The Mining and Minerals Act, 2022, officially ring-fences ASM activities for Ugandan citizens to ensure that local communities and the country benefit directly from their natural resources – through jobs and revenues. Studies have noted that ASM employs 20 times more people than large-scale mining and keeps over 80 percent of its earnings circulating locally.
In their remarks at the recent event, many local leaders noted the rapid growth of Bukuya – which is said to be the fastest developing town council in Uganda. This was exactly what the government envisioned when it sought to formalise the ASM sub-sector, Alaba said. Adding that over 60 percent of Uganda’s mining workforce was employed in ASM and that with the right support, ASMs can be a major driver of economic transformation – supporting Uganda’s ambitions to grow the economy from $50b to $500b by 2040.
This license now allows MUMA to take part in Bank of Uganda’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, where the Central Bank will be buying only locally mined gold from licensed miners to supplement the country’s foreign currency reserves and strengthen the shilling. Which brings me to this related concern. I have seen some media reports link the MUMA license to Euro Gold Refinery. This is totally false. The MUMA membership is 100 percent Ugandan – and that is why we were granted the small-scale mining license, anyway. At the moment, no transaction has been done between MUMA and Euro Gold Refinery.
MUMA continues to have discussions with potential strategic partners, not only with refiners, but also with expert trainers and international agencies so as to implement best practices in technical mining processes plus health and safety amongst others – as we seek to transform not only the community within which we operate, but the nation at large.