The State of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Uganda: A Comprehensive Review

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) remains a vital pillar of Uganda’s socioeconomic transformation, directly and indirectly supporting millions of livelihoods. As the sector grows in its contribution to national mineral production and export earnings, it faces a critical juncture. From tragic fatalities and systemic exploitation to promising technological innovations and policy breakthroughs, the recently released Volume 2 of the UGAASM Magazine provides a comprehensive, unvarnished look at the realities of Uganda’s mining communities.

Synthesizing the insights from the Uganda Association of Artisanal and Small-scale Miners (UGAASM), government officials, development partners, and on-the-ground miners, this article explores the triumphs, tragedies, and the urgent need for holistic formalization.

The Human Cost: Tragedy and Regulatory Failures

The stark reality of ASM’s dangers was laid bare on July 19, 2026, when a 120-foot-deep pit collapsed in Mabuka Village, Namayingo District, trapping 10 miners. Driven by economic desperation, youth unemployment, and the collapse of local fishing and boda-boda trades, miners had flocked to the informal gold rush. Despite prior police shutdowns, enforcement had collapsed. When the pit caved in, the site supervisor fled with the worker registry, leaving a community-driven rescue operation to recover five survivors and five bodies over 16 agonizing days.

This tragedy highlights the structural flaws in Uganda’s regulatory framework. According to Kenneth Asimwe, CEO of UGAASM, the current regime allows for speculative hoarding of Exploration Licenses by entities with no on-ground presence, pushing locals into illegal, unsafe mining. Furthermore, the separation of technical expertise (under the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines, DGSM) and operational enforcement (under the Police Minerals Protection Unit, PMPU) creates accountability grey areas. UGAASM proposes urgent interventions, including a “Use-It-or-Lose-It” mechanism for licenses, placing the PMPU under DGSM operational command, and establishing a Mines Safety and Formalization Fund.

The dangers are not limited to deep pits. In Busia District, gold mining runs through generations, often taking place in residential backyards. Susan Nambuya’s compound hosts an 80-foot shaft, a hoist, and oxygen piping, blurring the lines between home and mine. While it provides a livelihood, it exposes families to unsecured excavations and attracts criminal gangs connected to security personnel, operating entirely outside the formal regulatory framework.

Exploitation and Economic Marginalization

Beyond safety, miners face severe economic exploitation. In Karamoja’s Nanyidik village—a self-proclaimed “global village” for marble—artisanal miners work alongside Chinese-owned Sunbelt Mining Group. Despite the grueling labor of extracting and breaking 7-tonne heaps of marble, miners earn just UGX 120,000 per tonne, a rate local leaders decry as exploitative. Without weighbridges to track output, the local government also loses out on vital royalty accruals.

Women miners in Rupa and Katikekile face a compounded crisis. Esther Dengel notes that middlemen delay payments and offer low prices, leaving women struggling to recoup daily operational costs (UGX 10,000) against meager profits (UGX 30,000 per heap). The newly formed Karamoja Agrobusiness and Mining Cooperative Society aims to combat this systemic cheating through collective bargaining and education.

Similar frustrations were echoed in Rubanda, where the 2015 mineral export ban has left miners at the mercy of unscrupulous middlemen. Miners argue that prioritizing small-scale value addition over raw extraction is economically flawed. Meanwhile, the promised mineral beneficiation centers, like the one in Ntungamo, remain stalled by procurement delays, pushing valuable resources into smuggling networks.

High-Stakes Politics and Institutional Betrayal

In some regions, the rush for gold has devolved into chaos. In Kanungu District’s Kayungwe Gold Mine, a government shutdown in July 2026 to curb environmental degradation left thousands without livelihoods. The vacuum was quickly filled by corruption. Local leaders accused security personnel of facilitating illegal night mining, taking bribes, and then violently torturing miners to cover their tracks. The crisis exposed deep fractures in local leadership, including a heated public clash between State Minister for Minerals Development, Hon. Phiona Nyamutoro, and Col. Samson Mande over the legitimacy of local mining cooperatives.

Contrastingly, Minister Nyamutoro successfully negotiated a one-year reprieve for over 500 miners facing eviction from AUC Mining Limited’s license in Kamalenge. After miners presented receipts showing they had paid millions for workspace, pits, and electricity, the Ministry intervened to prevent their displacement by the majority shareholder, Michael Wang. The resolution allowed operational miners to remain and promised refunds to those who bought land, proving that coexistence between investors and ASMs is possible.

Pathways to Progress: Models of Success and Policy Wins

Amidst the challenges, the magazine highlights exemplary models and strategic breakthroughs. In Isingiro District, African Panther Resources has established a model ASM-centered partnership. The company provides miners with access to equipment, maintenance, and blasting experts, buying the final tin product at a fair UGX 40,000 per kilo. This symbiotic relationship provides a ready market and skills development for miners while ensuring stable production for the company.

Policy-wise, the sector has seen historic wins. The 6th Annual Great Lakes Mining and Energy Transition Mkutano (formerly the ASMQ Conference), launched in 2019 by ACEMP and UGAASM, has evolved into a premier regional platform. Its most defining achievement was the successful adoption of over 60% of its stakeholders’ recommendations into the Mining and Minerals Act 2022. The recent convening in Kampala audited six years of progress, emphasizing formalization as a catalyst for human rights, gender inclusion, and sustainable development.

Formalization is further being supported by the UNDP’s ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme. With ASMs accounting for over 90% of Uganda’s metallic, industrial, and building minerals output, the program is helping miners transition into legally compliant enterprises. This includes addressing the “missing middle” of finance—where operations are too large for microfinance but too risky for commercial banks—by creating risk-sharing facilities.

Technology, Risk Management, and the Future

To combat illicit gold flows and prove creditworthiness, the Mubende United Mines Assembly (MUMA) and UGAASM, in partnership with Tehutira Technologies, launched the MUMA Chain of Custody Registry (MUMA CoC). This digital platform tracks ore from the pit to the buyer using a “Form A” record and nine distinct user roles. By replacing fragmented paper ledgers, it provides verifiable production histories, making miners bankable and aligning Ugandan gold with global compliance standards.

However, as Ahmed Luttamaguzi of Minet Uganda notes, formalization also brings new liabilities. Licensed entities are now obligated to show proof of insurance and adhere to Occupational Safety and Health standards. Risk advisory services are crucial to help cooperatives navigate these obligations, pool risks, and establish low-risk governance structures.

Recognizing the critical need for on-the-ground education, UGAASM, with UNDP support, has launched a countrywide mine-site safety drive. Traversing the western, eastern, Kigezi, and Karamoja regions, experts are training miners in occupational health, environmental protection, business aspects, and geological reporting.

Conclusion

As UGAASM Chairperson John Bosco Bukya emphasizes, ASM is not a peripheral activity but an important part of the national economy. However, mineral wealth must not coexist with persistent community poverty. The future of Uganda’s mining sector depends on a fundamental shift from reactive enforcement to proactive, technically-led regulation. By providing financial inclusion, technical capacity, and market access, Uganda can ensure that its artisanal miners are recognized as legitimate economic actors, transforming a sector historically plagued by risk and exploitation into a safe, profitable, and dignified engine for national growth.