L-R: Hon. Richard Kaijuka, the Chairman Board of Trustees of Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, and Humphrey Asiimwe, CEO of UCMP addressed a news conference at Kampala Serena Hotel on Oct.24
The 12th Annual Mineral Wealth Conference is set to take place next week from October 30th to 31st at Kampala Serena Hotel.
Registration for participants is underway via mwc.ucmp.ug and other conference details are accessible via the Uganda Chamber of Mines & Petroleum (UCMP) social media platforms under the hashtag #MWC2023
This year’s conference is being held under the theme; “Creating a Viable and Feasible Roadmap for Uganda’s Mineral Sector to Contribute to Economic Transformation.”
Organized by Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum (UCMP) in partnership with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, the conference is set to attract a total of 300 participants from Uganda, East Africa, and beyond.
The participants include government officials, private sector players, civil society organisations, and members of the diplomatic community and development partners.
The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Hon. Ruth Nankabirwa will preside over the opening ceremony before national and international speakers delve into the topical issues for the 2-day conference, which will also have industry exhibitors on the sidelines.
Addressing a news conference at Kampala Serena Hotel on Oct.24, Humphrey Asiimwe, CEO of UCMP, said over the years, the annual conference has played a critical role in creating opportunities for Uganda’s domestic and international mining interests since it brings together key policy and decision-makers, business leaders, bankers, academia, and mining investors from all over the world.
The topics
He revealed that discussions at this year’s mineral wealth conference will focus on the drivers and dynamics of the investment climate today, the reporting and compliance requirements for the mining industry, the impact of climate change on mining, the opportunities and challenges in regional integration of mining projects, the critical role of the legal and regulatory frameworks in investment promotion, practical lessons from the years of development of Uganda’s mineral sector and benchmarks from successful jurisdictions/regions among others.
Mineral wealth for Uganda
Uganda is a mineral-wealth country and geological surveys indicate that the country has the potential for commercial exploitation of over 20 categories of minerals.
To enhance the prospects and de-risk the minerals sector, Uganda has over time completed the acquisition and processing of high-resolution aerial magnetic data for the entire country.
This exercise revealed high target areas with anomalies for different minerals, with the potential for world-class discoveries.
Already commercial deposits of Rare Earth Elements, graphite, Iron Ore, and Gold, among others have been discovered in different parts of Uganda.
This is in addition to the new potential targets for Uranium, 3Ts, Nickle, lithium, gold, bentonite, and other clays that were picked up during aerial survey.
The 3rd National Development Plan (NDPIII) running from 2020/21 – 2024/25 prioritized the development of five (5) categories of minerals, namely; Iron ore, Gold, Copper, Phosphates, and Development Minerals (marble, silica sand, aggregate, and limestone) given the advancement of efforts to ascertain their commercial viability and data availability on the same.
Accordingly, there will be continued studies to fully quantify all the other minerals whose occurrences are known.
UCMP is working closely with the government to find ways of ensuring the country does quantification of these minerals to guide investments in the sector but also contribute to the growth of the economy.
The government allocated Shs54.3billion in the current budget up from Shs49bn in FY2021/22, for quantifying the country’s mineral deposits to ascertain their value before beneficiation. UCMP believes that more funds should be allocated to this cause.
The new Mining and Minerals Act passed in 2022 will help streamline mining by ensuring that artisanal/small-scale miners formalize and get recognised by the government of Uganda and other sector players.
UCMP is already doing some work with a group of women in Mubende and plans to widen the scope to cover other small miners in the Eastern town of Busia and the Western District of Buhweju are underway.
Beyond recognizing artisanal miners, the new law is giving the Minister power to do licensing as opposed to the old setting when the Commissioner was performing this role.
It disbanded the Mineral Police Unit and introduced the formation of Uganda Mining Company; introduced the free carry of 15% where the minister can negotiate a mandatory 15% shareholding in any private mining company among other issues.
Whereas the new law is set to revolutionise the mining sector in the country through value addition among other areas as stated above, UCMP will continue to work with the government in the event that changes to the act have to be made for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Conference sponsors
This year’s Mineral Wealth Conference is sponsored by Rwenzori Rare Metals, Centenary Bank, Uganda Insurers Association, Tororo Cement, Kenya Commercial Bank, Minet, Marsh, MADI, European Union, ionic Rare Earth, Willis Tower Watson, USAID, Equity Bank, The Uganda Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (UGEITI), Impact Gold and Blencowe among others.
