One man’s quest for gold wealth

From a far, it looked like a market with sky blue roofs. On drawing closer, the mines looked like a refugee camp on top of hills.

I was welcomed by men in dirty overalls, women with mud, and nonstop noise.
People were having lunch. I had my small bag and Ali suggested that we first go to his house (in that sense it is a house, made of tree poles, nails and polythene.) My friend’s bed was the first of its kind in my life. Poles fixed in the ground and a mattress on top.

He had been there for two weeks. He was a bit familiar with the conditions. He had his vehicle (a Noah UAQ) parked in front of his shark. By this time everything appeared promising to me. I did not mind about the conditions after all everybody was dirty but making money. So, I thought.
Our next destination was my friend’s cave. It is a hole dug in the ground. It was about 45 feet deep. He had hired workers, and that made me excited.
I was served lunch of posho and beans. We used the plastic plates that reminded me of my childhood in the 1980s and early 1990s.

That day, I ate food prepared by my friend’s workers. After lunch, my friend took me around to see what goes on in the mines. Each and every activity seemed to me like an opportunity.
My friend assured me that he was about to reach gold deposits.
“He got about Shs100m from this hole,” he pointed at his neighbour’s hole.

He went ahead and showed me all kind of business opportunities that were going on. Business ventures included but not limited to running public toilets, restaurants, lodges, grinding machines, actual gold digging, separating gold from sand and mobile money services, among others.
As all this was happening, I was feeling like all the money that I had ever dreamt of was hiding in this place.
With new zeal, I immediately made a call to another friend who is a mechanical engineer and with expertise in building grinding machines.

I realised that with grinding machine, money was guaranteed.
I was to be informed that it required Shs2m to setup the grinding machine. I did not have this money. It made the venture impossible for a start. After making several rounds, I was physically and mentally exhausted by evening.
Life in the night is different from that in the day. After a long day’s work, men spend on women, alcohol, watching movies and other ways they deem fit.

On the other hand, some people work day and night; the people who dig gold out of the ground, those who run bars, gambling places, guest houses and grinding machines.
At Shs1,000, you get water for domestic use. For starters, it is very dirty that on the first night I opted not to bathe. Ali advised that I take some tea before going to sleep. “You cannot manage our life man, just sleep” he said.

I did as advised. However, not far from where I lay my head was a grinding machine that worked through the night. It was difficult to catch some sleep.
At around 1am, some of the men returned, but, they were drunk. They never bothered bathing before they went to sleep.

HIS FIRST MORNING
My first 24 hours in the gold mine is an experience I will talk about for a long time. I stayed awake until morning for the first night. In the morning, my friend got me a young man who had experience in testing gold specimens from the dust.

Extracting
To extract the gold, a hole is dug into the ground, buts it’s unfortunate that the methods used in digging are too archaic or primitive. They use hoes and small machines [drill-like] which make the whole process tiresome and expensive. The deeper they go the more gold specimens they get and that sets the prices of the soil, stones or sand extracted. The cost of one basin ranges from Shs5,000 to Shs300,000 depending on the possibility of the quantity of gold in there. One sack ranges between Shs70,000 and Shs2m.

From the businesses I saw around, compared to the money I had in the pocket, and the risks involved, I opted to deal in sand that has been dug from the mines.
The process starts from buying this sand. It’s dried in the sand. When it’s ready, it’s taken to the grinding machine before it’s taken for washing.
There is someone at every corner making money, including washing. They use mercury which is poured in a basin and then they wash the sand powder.

Mercury is heavy than water but gold is heavier than the two. Gold in powder form attaches itself on mercury and after washing is done it’s separated from mercury and put aside.
The buyers of ready gold are there too. Many traders sell part of their gold there, while others take it to Kampala for better prices.

For those who trade within the mine, they get their gold melted to purify them of mercury elements. After it cools, it is weighed and the payment is made. Prices keep fluctuating depending on the dollar rate and the international market prices.

On my first morning, we proceeded to look for the best sand. I was determined to try my luck. The young man given to me by my friend was experienced in testing for gold.
We went to different parts and finally he advised me to buy. I bought three basins of sand at Shs50,000 each. I also bought two empty sacks at Shs1,000 to carry the sand to the drying venue. I paid Shs4,000 to the men who do the transportation on their heads.

Selling the gold
From the businesses I saw around, compared to the money I had in the pocket, and the risks involved, I opted to deal in sand that has been dug from the mines.
The process starts from buying this sand. It’s dried in the sand. When it’s ready, it’s taken to the grinding machine before it’s taken for washing.

There is someone at every corner making money, including washing. They use mercury which is poured in a basin and then they wash the sand powder.
Mercury is heavy than water but gold is heavier than the two. Gold in powder form attaches itself on mercury and after washing is done it’s separated from mercury and put aside.
The buyers of ready gold are there too. Many traders sell part of their gold there, while others take it to Kampala for better prices.

For those who trade within the mine, they get their gold melted to purify them of mercury elements. After it cools, it is weighed and the payment is made. Prices keep fluctuating depending on the dollar rate and the international market prices.

On my first morning, we proceeded to look for the best sand. I was determined to try my luck. The young man given to me by my friend was experienced in testing for gold.
We went to different parts and finally he advised me to buy. I bought three basins of sand at Shs50,000 each. I also bought two empty sacks at Shs1,000 to carry the sand to the drying venue. I paid Shs4,000 to the men who do the transportation on their heads.

After the sand was dried, we took it to the grinding machine. I paid Shs5,000 for each basin.
After grinding, I took the sand for washing and they charged me Shs2,500 for each basin. I invested Shs178,500 on the first day.

When all was done, I got 1.87grammes of gold. The price of gold that day was Shs92,000 per gramme, so, I made Shs172,040. This meant I made a loss of Shs12,500 on the first day.
The next day I made a profit of Shs140,000, after investing Shs200,000. I harvested 3.72grammes.
The days that followed were not good for me because I could only make losses. After five days, I thought of reviewing my business plan.
After one week, I had spent around Shs1m on paying for my sleeping place, buying the beddings, others costs and my capital.

After losing Shs1m, I decided to join buyers of ready gold. For the past week, I had taken time to inquire about the procedures of selling gold in Kampala. I sent gold samples to the buyers in Kampala through another friend to ascertain the percentage and quality of gold.

Fortunately, the market seemed promising and I was ready to switch to buying ready gold. I bought 21.73grams in the next week with Shs2m. I was promised Shs120,000 per gram in Kampala. My 21.73grams would make Shs2,607,600.
But when I reached Kampala, the prices had reduced to Shs100,000 per gram. I tried different buyers but almost all the prices did not differ much. I decided to sell to one Indian lady who offered me Shs110,000. She left me in her shop and crossed to the opposite shop saying that she was going to do the melting.

A few minutes later, she returned saying that my gold was of poor quality and was at 73 per cent. She also told me that she was willing to pay Shs67,000 for a gram. However, I had been told that gold from Mubende mines is always between 90 per cent and 97 per cent. I started sweating. I was so disappointed and angry.

I asked the woman to give me my gold which she did. I went to another buyer who is a Pakistani. He was friendly and when I told him about the Indian woman who had conned me, he said that she had done the same to several people before. He told me that half of my gold had been taken away and instead some particles added into the remaining one. That’s why it had decreased in the percentage and quality.

He advised me that we needed to melt it again if we had to get out the residual out. We did as he suggested and its percentage increased but the quantity was now half the original. He bought it at Shs100,000 per gram but I got Shs980,000 it the end.

if you join
For one to be legally transacting in gold business requires a license which is very expensive. Most of the gold traders in Uganda do it on black market and that’s why even when someone cons you it is very difficult to apply the law on them.
I had hoped to make a lot of money but I ended up making losses. All the time I spent in the gold mine was however an experience that I can never forget.

The Gold mines are like a free trade Zone, no direct taxes, no laws; everything is the way it is because that is how it is. A few lucky individuals get rich in a brink of an eye and majority make losses every day.
Men have left their families, women have left husbands and children, and children have left school and their parents to search for a fortune in the gold mines of Mubende. It is a bustling township.

Due to the high risk in the gold, I would advise anyone thinking of going there to explore opportunities in guest houses, restaurants, mobile money service, bars, butchers etc.
Con artists across the gold chain are everywhere, from those extracting the soil from the ground mixing Tri-circle Padlock powder or 500 coin powder for the soil to look like gold to workers disappearing from their bosses after they find huge amounts of gold deposits down there. Even mercury used in washing the powder is sometimes fake, so are weighing scales. People are reported to die underground in the process of extracting sand as earth curves in and buries them underground. No one reports about them.