East African Gazette
Busia Uganda
Busia artisan miners have commended the Government for policy inclusion that have enabled them to favorably participate in the mining sector without fear.
According to Stephen Paade Engidoh, the chairman of the Uganda Association of Artisanal and Small-scale Miners (UGAASAM) Eastern Region said before the new law (Mining and Minerals Act 2022) that provides for the participation of host communities in the entire decision-making chain of mining, mining was taken illegal for artisan.
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“Many artisans used to be arrested almost every day but today, because of the new law, artisans can now unit into small scale and get their licenses a although its little bite expensive” said Engidoh
Engidoh, said although 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, we shall adhere with the law so longer artisans are remain in the sector
He explained that when miners were evicted by government in Mubende in 2017, every miner got scared even those in Buhweju, Busia feared it would have a far-reaching impact, but through close dialogue civil society organizations like Solidaridad and others have successfully bridged the gap through sensitization of miners to formalize, legalize and license their businesses which has cemented their broken relationship with government in recent years.
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Engidoh, 63, made remarks while speaking to East African Gazette last week in Busia district in eastern Uganda during a field visit by a civil society organization Solidad that advocates for the rights of miners.
The 63-year-old Engidoh is also UGAASM’s public relations officer (PRO) at country level and also doubles as secretary for Busia United Small-scale Mining Association (BUSMA).
UGAASM is an umbrella body made of 158 associations of artisanal and small-scale Miners in Uganda, which is well represented in all the five mining regions of Uganda, namely; eastern, northern, central, western and Karamoja.
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In the same breath, they have called for the registration of all miners in the country after previous attempts to compile these statistics stalled recently after a tally of 5,700 miners had been registered in some districts such as Busia, Namagingo and Mubende.
Uganda’s gold industry has seen a radical increase in gold production. The country had revealed vast estimated gold deposits of around 31 million tonnes. Of the behemoth find, around 320,158 metric tonnes are refined gold, with an approximate value of $12. 8tn.Acording exploration surveys 2022.
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Geological studies show that 300 million tonnes of Limestone deposits are estimated to be in Karamoja Region; over 6 million tonnes of copper are anticipated in Kilembe; 7.3 million ounces of gold deposits in West Nile and western parts of the country; 22 million tonnes of salt at Katwe in Kasese; while 231 metric tonnes of Iron Ore are estimated in Western and Eastern Uganda
What is the proposed license
The Bill also proposes licenses being based on capital investments, the proposed rates are US$100 million and above for large scale licenses, US$300,000 to US$100 million for medium scale licenses, US$100,000 to US$5 million for small scale licenses and US$100,000 and below for artisan Miners.
The Bill mandates the National Mining Company to hold 15 per cent free equity in all large and medium mining ventures as well as have the right to pay up to 20 per cent extra shares in the mining ventures at the commercial rate.
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Miners call for specific funding
According Emmanuel Kibirige, the National Cordintor UGAASM said much as Government with new law, has allowed artisanal to participate in decision making, government should make a deliberate effort to support the mining sector in a similar way as it renders support to other sectors like tourism.
“Government should promote mining as it does in tourism because, the mining sector have the potential to employee over 200,000 people” Kibirige noted
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According to Kibirige, said Gold is one of Uganda top foreign exchange but it looks bad, the sector is not supported
Statistic
Gold continues to drive Uganda’s export receipt growth, which went up to 650.6 million dollars in June 2023 up from 365 million in the same month in 2022. This also represented an 11.1 percent increase in total exports compared to 585.81 million dollars recorded in May 2023 and is 39 percent of the total exports for the month.
Mineral exports, which were almost entirely gold, accounted for 253 million dollars, up from 200.7 million in May 2023, gold export earnings had grown to 170 million dollars a month, according to the figures at the Central Bank.
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The subsector remains stable, gold exports are projected to bring in at least 2.5 billion dollars a year, the highest ever and more than a third of all export earnings. Apart from gold, the increase in export figures was also on account of higher earnings from beans, simsim, cotton, and coffee.
Coffee, the country’s previous top export earner, recorded an increase in earnings from 73.3 million in June to 90.6 million dollars recorded in May which is also slightly higher than the 83.8 million dollars for June 2022.
There was an improvement in maize export earnings, from 4.5 million in June 2022 to 10.5 million in May and 12.2 million dollars in June this year.
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Other exports that saw slight increases included oil re-exports to 13.37 million, flowers to 6.9, and tobacco to 3.67 million compared to June 2022, while another major export, Fish and Fish Products recorded a decline to 10.7 million dollars.
Markets
Kenya was Uganda’s biggest export destination with 31.4 percent, followed by South Sudan with 25.7 while the Democratic Republic of Congo took 24.7 percent of the exports.
Asia and the Middle East emerged as the second and third top destinations, accounting for 32.8 and 13.8 percent of total exports respectively. However, there was a notable increase in the goods destined for the Asia market almost eight times from 28.12 million in June 2022 to 213.5 million dollars in June 2023, owing to the increase in gold exports to the region.
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Informal cross-border exports also increased from 41.7 million in June last year to 48.7 million dollars in June 2023. Asia was followed by the Middle East and the European Union which saw its market share of Uganda’s export market drop by almost a half from 21.3 to 12.7 percent.
CSO speaks out
Joshua Rukundo, Solidaridad’s senior project officer, noted that by its nature mining is capital intensive and truly requires government funding as well as financing from banks to keep mining businesses afloat.
“In the absence of a fund from the government to inject into mining, something similar to what they are doing for agriculture such as the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) plus Emyooga should be implemented,” he advised.
According to Rukundo, commercial banks have shunned away from supporting mining simply because most of them don’t understand what mining entails.
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“For them when they get to a mine and they see a big hole in the ground, it’s a big no!” he exclaims. “And you cannot blame them,” he added.
The problem with bankers, Rukundo noted, is the fear of hurting or contradicting their brand image.
” From their corporate image, you don’t want to be associated with gross environmental misconduct, like poor occupational health and safety standards,” he explained.
In his analysis, if banks can take time to understand how small-scale mining interacts with communities he says, they would change their poor attitude towards the sector and even end up designing financial solutions that are specific to the sector.
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He also foresees a scenario where the current ban on the use of mercury in gold mining, in a sense of viable alternatives, will potentially result in creating a very lucrative underground business for selling mercury.
Rukundo says this is likely to increase the price and its demand by a hundredfold since it was outlawed instead of being gradually phased out.
According to Robert Katabarwa, a member of Mubende United mines assembly, (MUMA) agreed that banks are very reluctant to provide financing solutions to miners.
Katabarwa notes that the equipment used in mining is so expensive to acquire, giving an example of a ball mill which costs about sh15m, most mines require two of these to operate efficiently, with their accessories combined, these gold-production equipment can set back a miner by sh50m.
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Yet according to him, banks disregard mining equipment as collateral for bank loans which he attributes to ignorance of the sector.
“Banks need to pick interest in this mining sector and invest. ore into it to give it a much-needed boost,” Katabarwa
Among the challenges miners face include; heavy rains that compel them to halt mining operations due to weakened soil that tends to cave in with disastrous repercussions.
Mining suspended over increasing rainfall.
During a four-day field inspection tour, many local processing plants were shut down due to safety concerns. According Engidoh said during the rainy season, the mining pits are full of water, the ground becomes wet and very soft which puts the lives of miners at risk
“We decided to suspend the mining now it’s three months” said Engidoh
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Engidoh added that other miners are using modern methods of mining like Carbon in Pulp (CIP) that seeks to eliminate open cast mining by resorting to a more eco friendly and sustainable miner, the method is friendly and miners can operate even in all weather conditions.
Challenges women get in the mining sector
According Josephine Agutta, secretary Tiira small scale mining said women in the mining sector don’t own land were they mine, if you’re a widow and your husband left you with land and it happen that they discover gold in that land, the family, takes over that land, saying you did not come with land and this dramatizes many women in mining sector
“Mining is capital intensive; women lack capital to favorably participate in the mining sector “said Agutta
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She noted that in the mining community women are the one managing homes, many men have neglected their responsibility in their families, when they get money, they just disappear for one week until the money is finished
“Women are left with responsibility of looking after children including buying food and other responsibilities “Agutta noted
Also challenge of school drop
Joseph Bwire,25 a resident of Buteba Busia district, said gold mining is a lucrative business and many children in Busitema, Buteba, and Sikuda sub-counties had resorted to gold mining in order to sustain themselves
“It is hard to convince the children to continue with education with hard situations at school such as lack of lunch and strict rules and regulations yet gold mining is a lucrative business for them to survival” noted
According to Bwire, due to the overwhelming number of school drop-outs, more sensitisation programmes need to be carried out to stop children from mining.
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According Oron Rapheal Osacha, Senior operation and social Welfare officer Busia said although there are some children dropping out of school to engage in gold mining but Government has set up various programmes that emphasis on promoting education
“We have worked with Civil Organisation, Local leaders, police and Artisanal association to make sure no children are employed in the mining sector “Osacha noted
Parents have also been advised to provide their children with school requirements, we are moving from village to village with LC officials sensitising the public on the need for education and denouncing gold mining as a life-harming activity and if it’s done effectively, the number of school drop-outs would decrease and child marriage
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He however attributed the school drop-out on parents who rely on their children for financial support, saying some children want to go to school but they are denied the chance by their parents.
About UGAASM
UGAASM is an umbrella body that is made of 158 associations of Artisanal and Small- scale Miners in Uganda. It is represented in all the five Mining regions of Uganda namely, Western Region, Northern Region, Karamoja Region, Eastern Region and Central region.
UGAASM was formulated in 2018 and it embarked on the process of helping Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners get legalized/ Formalized and licensed which is required by the new Mining and Minerals Act 2022.
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The umbrella has helped miners from Mubende acquire 1 Sq. Kilometer and in Bahwezu 35 square kilometers of mining space. The leaders of the five regional associations also collectively had a chance to consult and harmonize their different positions resulting in ASMs position paper of the Mining and Mineral Bill 2022 and over 50% was adopted in the new law.
They have partnership with different civil society organisations like ACEMP, GI, SOLIDARIDAD etc. have played a big role in sensitizing Artisanal and small-scale miners to get formalized, legalized, practice healthy and safety, gender inclusion, study tours among others.
UGAASM’s collaboration with ASMs Associations in Uganda has the potential to impact livelihoods, provide crucial inputs for domestic economic development, build interlinkages with the other sectors of the economy, generate more local jobs and ultimately reduce poverty and lead to sustainable development of the country.
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