Small scale miners want mining laws amended

Kampala. Small scale and artisanal miners have urged government to amend mining laws and regulations because they only favour large scale players who are mostly foreigners.
Speaking at a meeting that attracted dozens of small scale miners from Mubende, Busia, Namayingo and Karamoja region in Busia Town last week, the miners said the current laws lock them out of an industry they have depended on for decades.
Mr John Bosco Bukya, the chairman of Mubende United Miners Assembly, a group that brings together more than 100,000 small scale miners in Mubende District, said the Mining Act 2003 does not cater for the rights of small scale miners.
“The law is brutal, prohibitive, give exclusive mining rights to large scale mining companies and it is colonial in nature,” he said.
The law, he said, defines artisanal miners as operators who use tools such as hoes, spades and pick axes yet at the same time, they are allowed to obtain location licenses to mine.
Artisanal miners under, the Act, are not allowed to invest more than Shs10m yet it requires about Shs50m to dig one underground mining hole.
“Such a law definitely favours only big foreign investors and it makes the rest of us law breakers. We want it amended to cater for our interests,” he said.
In September 2017, the booming artisanal mining business in Kitumbi and Bukuya, Mubende District came to a halt when security forces evicted hundreds of miners from mines where they had operated for more than five years.
The miners who have since regrouped under the Mubende Miners Assembly, according to Mr Bukya, have secured a 30 per cent mining rights on the land claimed by AUC Mining Company owned by Ms Gertrude Njuba and her associates.
Mr Nathan Msushetya, the principal Mines Inspector in charge of Eastern Uganda, said the Energy ministry is willing to listen to miners if they are ready to organise themselves into a united body
“Mining has a lot of hazards. Many lives have been lost and the environment is degraded. That is why we want an organised body that can be accountable and mitigate damages,” he said.

During the meeting that was organised by Action Aid Uganda, Mr Didas Muhumuza, the organisation’s extractives governance coordinator, said the regulatory challenges affecting the mining sector have to be discussed and fixed since the natural resources have to be exploited sustainably to benefit everyone.
He said they have been engaging artisanal and small scale miners in Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya to come up with a policy and regulatory framework to be part of the African Mining Vision.

Mr George Kwemboi, the chairman of Tiira Small Scale Mining Company in Busia said government should stop listening and favouring speculators who connive with politicians and businessmen in Kampala to evict artisanal miners.

“These people do not prospect for gold, they wait for artisanal miners to find gold deposits and use the unfair land laws to take over them mining areas,” he said.