The

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

industry of

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, documented as early as the 1920s, witnessed a boom in the 1950s with a record 30 percent of the country's exports. It received a further boost when mining revenues increased by 48 percent between 1995 and 1997. However, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

reported that the sector's contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) dropped from 6 percent during the 1970s to below 0.5 percent in 2010. Uganda's

extractive industry Extractivism is the process of extracting natural resources from the Earth to sell on the world market. It exists in an economy that depends primarily on the extraction or removal of natural resources that are considered valuable for exportation w ...

activities have been identified by the

Natural Resource Governance Institute The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving countries' governance over their natural resources (in particular oil, gas and minerals) to promote sustainable and inclusive developm ...

as focused on "extraction of

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...

, gold, copper,

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...

, steel,

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

and other industrial products such as

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

, diamonds, salt and

vermiculite Vermiculite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral which undergoes significant expansion when heated. Exfoliation occurs when the mineral is heated sufficiently, and commercial furnaces can routinely produce this effect. Vermiculite forms by the wea ...

". Limestone is sold in local markets whereas gold, tin, and tungsten are major exports.

History

The country's mining history is recorded in the 1920s with work done at southwest Uganda's tin and tungsten deposits. In the following decade, gold mining began near Busia. In the 1950s, the Kilembe copper mine was developed and it became the country's largest mine. The 1950s and 1960s was an important phase for mining when it had a 30 percent contribution to the total exports of the nation. During the late 1980s, laying of roads led to increase in demand for construction material. The National Mining Commission was formed in 1988. North Korea financed the Ugandan government's project to rehabilitate the Kilembe copper mine.

Production and impacts

Companies working in the mining and quarrying industries saw an 11 percent increase in revenues every year (in 2008). Under the SMMRP,

artisanal mining An artisanal miner or small-scale miner (ASM) is a subsistence miner who is not officially employed by a mining company, but works independently, mining minerals using their own resources, usually by hand. Small-scale mining includes enterprises ...

is part of community development with 50 artisanal and small-scale mining associations getting established. Lack of continuous power supply is one of the challenges that the industry faces. Tororo and Hima Cement Industries together produce 1.05 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s of cement annually. Despite this, Uganda imported cement from Kenya. A-Tec Industries (Austria) restarted extraction at the Kilembe Copper Mines with an investment of US$200 million. Magnus International Resources (US), Anglo Uganda Corp. (UK), and Grey Crown Resources Ltd. (Canada) are some of the foreign companies working for gold extraction in Uganda. Gold mining is also done by artisans. The first case of gold production was recorded in 1992, and, in 2000 Uganda, produced of gold. 230 metric tonnes of phosphorus is estimated to be present in approximately of the Osukuru Hills. Canada's IBI Corp. has explored Mubende for

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

. Cresta Uganda is involved in diamond mining.

Legal framework

The country has a Mineral Act, which is under revision. Mineral exploration and exploitation is governed by several types of licenses. These are: the Prospecting Licence which is mineral or area specific and is valid for one year; under Exclusive Prospecting Licence (EPL), mineral specific. and is limited to an area of and the Special Exclusive Prospecting Licence (SEPL) is for a minimum area of ; Mining License for developers which could be location specific as Mining License is limited to an area of with validity of 1 year; in the case of large mining area the lease could be for 21 years for areas up to ; and Mineral Dealers Licence which is a permit to use water resources for mining operations with validity of one year ending December. Under the new Mineral Act, at least 70% of all revenue from new mines will belong to the government. From that amount, 15% will go to the local government and the town council will get a 10% of the revenue. Owner of the land shall receive up to 5%.

Mines

Kilembe Mines Kilembe Mines is a copper and cobalt mine in Uganda, the third-largest economy in the East African Community. Location The mine is located in Kilembe, a suburb of the town of Kasese, in the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains in the Western Regio ...

( copper, cobalt) * Nyamuliro mine (Tungsten) * Ruhijha mine (Tungsten) * Sukulu mine (Niobium)

References

Bibliography