Billions lost as colonialists ferry minerals out of Uganda

As the scramble went on, little did the British know they were taking over a territory well-endowed with minerals so much that in a space of 38 years, between 1927 and 1965, minerals worth £58m (Shs251.2b) were taken out of Uganda.

Considering that by 1965 the exchange rate of a pound to a shilling was 1 to 20, with inflation factored in, the mineral wealth taken out of Uganda in those 38 years was well above trillions of shillings.

By 1965, mineral exports accounted for 14 per cent of Uganda’s export earnings with copper coming third to coffee and cotton in terms of income generation, though its exports started in 1959.

History of minerals in Uganda
Between 1902 and 1939, the interest in mineral prospecting gained momentum. This was after the first prospecting concessions were issued to individuals and companies – the East Africa Syndicate – in 1902 to prospect 100 square miles in Butiaba in Bunyoro for gold.

By the end of 1908, 22 prospecting licences had been issued to cover the entire crown land in the protectorate. In 1913 a British prospector, W. Brittlebank , got the first oil prospecting licence, covering 898 square miles, centering on Kibiro near Lake Albert where he had located oil seepages.

Unfortunately for him, the outbreak of the First World War halted his activities up to the time when his licence expired in 1922. In 1920, Capt A. W. Hills and Sir Phillip Lee Brocklehurst bought exclusive oil rights over a large area of West Nile at £50 (just Shs200,000 at the current exchange rate).

According to the Uganda journal of 1967, mineral prospector J. G. Currie discovered gold in West Nile as early as 1915, though mining in the area did not pick up until 1920 when the Kilo Moto gold mines opened in Congo.

The opening of the Kilo Moto mines led to a rush by other prospecting companies such as Nile Congo Divide Syndicate from Congo to the West Nile region, though it did not find gold of economic value but discovered low grade copper in Manya area in West Madi.

Tin
In 1925, James and Dimitri Kargarotos in collaboration with G.C. Ishmeal found Uganda’s first commercial tin deposits in Kyamutarwa in Ankole, northwest of Kikagati. Ankole sub-region had the highest concentration of tin with four commercial mines at Mwirasandu, Namherere, Kania and Burama ridge.

The Kyamutarwa deposits were worked by the East Africa Metal company and later by Ankole Tinfields Limited. When G. Williams from the East Africa Trust Limited got exclusive rights in 1926 to prospect in the region, he discovered what turned out to be the biggest tin deposits in Uganda at Mwirasandu, which started operating in 1927, producing 5,751 tonnes of tin by 1965, accounting for 60 per cent of Uganda’s tin exports. From this mine alone, tin worth £1.3m (Shs7.95b) was exported to Malaya, now Malaysia.

Gold
Gold was first reported in West Nile region in 1915, but commercial mining did not start until 1933. By 1965, only 148,043ozs were mined in Ankole, Kigezi and Bukedi sub-regions producing 68, 15, 16 per cent respectively.

Buhweju plateau was the most productive area; producing 17,511ozs valued at £700,000 (Shs5b) and employing more than 5,000 Ugandans. Other gold deposits were along the Kashasha River in Kigezi region. Busia gold mines discovered in 1932 were an extension of the Kavirondo mines in Kenya.

Wolfram
Ishmeal and Kargarotos while prospecting for gold in Kigezi near the Bwindi impenetrable forests discovered Wolfram in 1931. More discoveries were made at what came to be known as Mpororo Wolfram mines, whose exports started in 1937, churning out 80 tonnes by 1944.

By the end of 1965, the total value of Wolfram exports from Uganda was £1.564m (Shs8.73b) from three mines – Kirwa and Bahati mines owned by P. Kikkides and Nyamuliro mines owned by H. Bjordal – accounting for more than three quarters of the exports. Two other less successful mines were opened in 1942 by T. Spyropoulos in Rubiza, and another in Singo, both producing 25 tonnes.

In early 1960, there was a fall in the prices only to rise again in 1965. The deposits at Kirwa and Nyamuliro had economic value but competition from places such as China and Canada where it was easier to mine with better infrastructure made the Uganda mineral less competitive on the world market.

Diamond
The first quarter a carat of diamond was discovered in Buhweju in 1938 by the HM Syndicate and the Kenya-Uganda Minerals Limited while prospecting for gold. Later more alluvial diamond was found in Nyabikurungu valley.

Between June 1955 and January 1957, the Consolidation of African Selection Trust, a West African company, carried out more prospecting in the area with little success, finding no diamond of economic value, they in 1964 refocused to north-eastern Uganda.

Beryl
This is the source of beryllium metal used in some nuclear and space appliances. In 1922 A. D. Combe discovered it at Kihungye hot springs on the border of Ankole and Kigezi, though it was later found in parts of Buganda and Karamoja.

In 1962, Uganda exported 1,063 tonnes of Beryl, representing 11 per cent of the total world production. Writing in the Uganda journal of 1965 A. L. Job said: “The UK Energy Atomic Authority carried out investigations and found that 90,000 tonnes of beryl existed in the Kigezi and Ankole with the largest being at Ishasha mines.”

The same investigations also found that because of the spread of the mineral across different parts of the country; Uganda by 1962 was in position to produce 1,000 tonnes a year.

Phosphate and fertilisers
The mineral was first mined in 1939 at Busumbu though bigger deposits were later discovered at Sukulu and Bukusu in Bukedi and Bugisu regions respectively. Phosphate at the time believed to be Uganda’s most valuable mineral was being taken to Kenya for calcinations with Magadi soda to produce Soda phosphate fertilisers.

By 1965, the reserves at Busumbu were estimated at 50 million tonnes though the mineral could not be converted to super- phosphate because of high alumina and iron content. The Sukulu deposits had more than 200 million tonnes, but they were considered uneconomical because of the long haul to Kenya.

Limestone
Though considered a stone according to Uganda’s mining laws, it is classified as a mineral. It was found in the Sukulu and Tororo hills with reserves of up 27 million tonnes; Hima had reserves of 23 million tonnes, Muhokya in southeast of Kasese Town had reserves of 500,000 tonnes and near Dura River had reserves of 2 million tonnes.

The government’s public works department was the first to put the limestone to use on a small scale until the construction of the Tororo cement works in 1953. By 1965, the Uganda Cement Industries (UCI) had quarried 194,285 tonnes of limestone of which 160,513 tonnes were for cement, and 14,956 tonnes for building aggregate.

Copper
The first recorded copper discovery in Uganda was by the Duke of Abruzz during an expedition to the Rwenzori Mountain in 1906. But the main commercial deposits were discovered in 1927 by D. Magee who was working for Tanganyika Concessions Limited, which had been given a mineral prospecting license covering an area of 9,360 square miles.

The company started trenching on the northern side of Nyarusingye stream, but had its license reduced to 200sq miles in 1933. During this time, little work was done on the mines mainly because of the accessibility. The Mbarara-Kasese road was not built until 1939. This coupled with the low prices on the world market and the looming World War II had the company abandon the mines.

Government fenced off 155sq miles around Kilembe to keep the deposits as it looked for another company to operate them.

In 1942, rescue came in the form of Alderson, a Canadian who had developed the Macalder copper and gold mines in Kenya, who interested Frobisher Ltd, a Canadian mining company which formed a joint venture with Rio Tinto, a British mining giant. The two carried out preliminary investigations and started drilling in 1948 until 1951 with 10.5 million tonnes of ore discovered and another probable 4 million tonnes more.

With ore of that magnitude discovered, it recommended in 1951 that a railway line be extended from Mityana to Kasese, where it reached in 1953. After the railway line, a power line from Jinja to Kasese was recommended; this brought the projected costs of the copper development to £8m, forcing Rio Tinto to pull out, leaving it to Frobisher.

A cheaper alternative of smelting copper in Jinja was devised, and production started in 1956 with a target of 7,500 tonnes of copper per year. Along the way Frobisher’s interests were bought by Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited, another Canadian company which owned 75 per cent of the mines until its closure.

According to the London Metal Exchange records, Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited was receiving £229 per tonne of copper produced until 1963.
However, there was a change in fortune when the price more than doubled to £522 a tonne, enabling the company to make substantial profits by the end of 1965.

By that time, ore reserves stood at 6.5 million tonnes which could be mined within 6-7 years, calling for more prospecting in different parts of Uganda.

Though there were possibilities of finding more copper in areas of Tooro, Bunyoro and Buganda, the establishment of the mine depended on the government’s willingness to forego taxes and royalties until such a time when the prosperity of the mine was assured.

Oil
Oil seepages were found on both shores of Lake Albert in Uganda and DR Congo, then known as Zaire, more than a century ago according to the Uganda Journal volume 31. The first oil commercial interest in Ugandan was made by W. Brittlebank in 1913 when he got 625sq miles concession. Six years later he tried selling his concession back to government at a cost of £200 but failed until its expiry in 1922.

The African and European company of Johannesburg was the second company in 1936 to get a licence covering 1,384sq miles and drilled the first hole at Waki near Butiaba to a depth of 4,008 feet but found no free oil. Other holes were drilled at Kibiro at different depth, all yielding nothing substantial.

In 1963 an American company started negotiations with the Ugandan government to invest $4 million dollars into oil prospecting in the country, but nothing concrete came out of the talks.

Value (at current exchange rate) of minerals taken out of Uganda from 1927 to 1965

Shs157.2b
Copper, the biggest earner, £35.8m at the time.

Shs14.7b
Tin, the biggest earner valued at £2.9m at the time.

Shs8.7b
£1.6m worth of Wolfram was taken at the time.

Shs6.4b
Gold worth £998,000 was taken out of Uganda between 1927 and 1965.

Shs4b
Beryl £455,000 at the time was taken out of Uganda.

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