Kadaga asks MPs to make Busoga, Busia mineral regions
First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community (EAC) Affairs, Ms Rebecca Kadaga. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- In eastern Uganda, Rwenzori Rare Metals (RMM), a private Ugandan company, has since 2016 been conducting exploration work of rare earth elements (REE) and developing the Makuutu Rare Earths Project in Makuutu Sub-county, Bugweri District, which stretches about 37kms across the districts of Bugweri, Mayuge, Bugiri and Iganga.
The First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community (EAC) Affairs, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, has asked Members of Parliament (MPs) to have Busoga and Busia districts designated as mineral regions so as to lobby for better roads.
Ms Kadaga made the remarks at Busambira Village, Nakigo Sub-county, Iganga District at the weekend during the thanksgiving ceremony of Mr Titus Kisambira, the former Jinja District LC5 chairperson, who lost re-election in 2021 and was appointed commissioner in the Ministry of Public Service.
“There is the issue of rare earth minerals. I want you (MPs) to position Busoga to become the mineral region; and it’s not only Busoga, but also Busia. If we can interest the government that this is the mineral region of this country, we shall be entitled to request for roads for a mineral area,” Ms Kadaga said.
In eastern Uganda, Rwenzori Rare Metals (RMM), a private Ugandan company, has since 2016 been conducting exploration work of rare earth elements (REE) and developing the Makuutu Rare Earths Project in Makuutu Sub-county, Bugweri District, which stretches about 37kms across the districts of Bugweri, Mayuge, Bugiri and Iganga.
The project is one of the few clay deposits that contain high concentrations of heavy and critical metals necessary for strong magnets and other modern technology.
However, commercial exploration of minerals is expected to start in the first quarter of next year, according to Mr Warren Tregurtha, the RMM chief executive officer.
He said so far, the company has invested in excess of $10m (about Shs36b).
In Busia, Wagagai Mining Uganda Ltd, a subsidiary of Liaoning Hongda Group, a Chinese consortium, in 2021 invested Shs710b in the mining and development of a gold refinery in the district.
This followed the discovery of a substantial deposit of the mineral amounting to nearly 10 million tonnes.
Ms Kadaga has always decried the poor nature of roads in Busoga Sub-region, which she said have largely been damaged by trucks that transport sugarcane.
According to Ms Kadaga, once declared mineral areas, the roads in Busoga and Busia will undergo refurbishment as is the case with the Albertine region where oil deposits were discovered.
Some of the legislators who attended the function include Maurice Kibalya (Bugabula South), Mariam Naigaga (Namutumba Woman), Cissy Namujju (Lwengo Woman), Alex Brandon Kintu (Kagoma North), among others.
