Thousands jobless with end of illegal mining in Uganda

By Godfrey Olukya

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - For the last 15 years, Wilberforce Mbulyanga has been driving a Mercedes Benz and living in a posh home he constructed in Muyenga, an upscale suburb of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

He has been getting money through illegal mining in gold mines in Uganda’s central district of Mubende.

"I started as a laborer digging rocks from which pieces of gold were extracted. After four years and having saved some money, I started buying gold from the artisanal miners and sold it to the dealers," he said.

He accumulated money and also became a dealer. But now he is worried because the government passed a law prohibiting illegal mining. He said it favors foreign mining companies which have big capital and money to pay for the expensive license.

More than 50,000 Ugandans have benefitted from the artisan gold mining practice.

Apart from the many men who have been working in the mines, there have been hundreds of women who have been cooking food and selling it to miners and dealers.

"I am finished. I have been operating a restaurant in the gold mine in Mubende district for 15 years but now we have been told to stop because the gold has been reportedly being mined illegally," said Speciozah Nagudi.

Parliament passed the Mining and Minerals Bill 2021 on Jan. 18, 2022, approving a proposal to have individuals or corporations convicted of mining minerals without a license be fined 1 billion Uganda shillings ($298,507) or face five years in prison.

It came after the government sought to criminalize conducting prospecting, exploration, mining, processing, refining or other beneficiation operations, under Uganda's jurisdiction without an authorization, license, lease, permit or approval, to be fined heavily.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development proposed to have anyone who contravenes the law be held liable and fined.

Emmanuel Otaala, Chairperson of the Committee of Environment and Natural Resources, said: "The Committee contended that there was a need to penalize persons that shall aid or assist illegal operators or prospectors."

Member of Parliament for Sheema municipality, Dickson Kateshumbwa, supported the punishment, saying in an interview that there are some high-value minerals that if one was found mining them without a license, a small fine would be pocket change and there is a need to make penalties stringent enough to protect Uganda’s minerals.

"When you talk of the minerals, some of the minerals, the value is so high that if you provide for a very small penalty, you are bound to have people who actually abuse the law and take away our minerals easily," he said.

- Opposing views

According to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, gold is one of the high-value minerals in Uganda. Others include uranium, cobalt, copper, iron, phosphates, limestone, kaolin, wolfram, tin and diamonds.

The government rejected pleas to have the fine reduced with Minister of State for Minerals Peter Lokeris saying the argument that the fine would affect artisanal miners who cannot hold ground because these will be required to hold licenses in groups.

Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi said Ugandans should not be hoodwinked into thinking all artisanal miners act as individuals -- some are working for big corporations.

"I want us to acknowledge that yes, we have artisanal miners who are small operators, but we also know that behind some artisanal miners, there are some big operators who hide behind them. So if we exempt artisanal miners, every big operator will now go underground and operate as an artisanal miner," he said.

Although artisan miners tried to oppose the passing of the law, parliament was not deterred.

Justifying the law, Lokeris said Uganda is endowed with natural resources, however, the sub-sector used to face challenges of low funding, institutional capacity to manage mineral resources, complex nature of artisanal and small scale mining, conflicts and environmental degradation.

According to the coordinator of the Artisanal and Small Scale Miners Association, Muhammad Muwonge, there are more than 20,000 miners in over 100 mines in different parts of the country who have been rendered jobless by the new law.

He said mines also provided indirect and induced labor to more than 54,000 people who are also affected.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Solomon Muyita, said it was necessary to put in place a law against illegal mining.

"Uganda was losing a lot of money due to undeclared minerals. We had to organize that sector,” he told Anadolu Agency. “For many years, small-scale miners have been operating without a license and we had no idea what quantity of minerals they have been mining, where they are taken and how much money they sell them for."

He said with the new law, the government is to get a 15% share in all minerals mined in addition to companies paying royalties.​​​​​​​