President Yoweri Museveni has commissioned Wagagai Gold Mine, the biggest gold project in Uganda.
The gold mine, with proven reserves of 9.224 square kilometres with 30 million tonnes of proven reserves of gold ore at an average grade of 0.81 gramme of gold per tonne of ore, is situated in Alupe in the southeastern district of Busia on the border with Kenya.
Run by Wagagai Mining Uganda Company Limited, the gold plant has in place state-of-the-art refinery capable of producing 99.9 percent pure gold suitable for direct use. The plant is is expected to process 5,000 tonnes of gold ore per day and produce 1.2 metric tonnes of refined gold a year.
President Museveni described the gold project as “a transformative milestone that will end the wasteful export of raw materials and usher Uganda into a new era of value addition”.
“I commissioned the Wagagai gold mining project in Busia District today, celebrating a significant step towards processing minerals in Uganda. Under my leadership, we will not export unprocessed minerals, as this undermines our economy”, said the President on his official X handle.
He added: “Wagagai aims to achieve 99.9% purity in gold processing locally, benefiting Uganda financially and creating over 5,000 jobs once fully operational. I urge other miners to ensure minerals are processed before export. By maximising our natural resources, gold, lithium, tea, iron, etc., we can create jobs and industrialize Uganda. The Wagagai project is expected to generate over $100 million annually for 21 years, and we must leverage these resources for a sustainable future.”
The President said for long Uganda has exported unprocessed minerals leading to losses and thanks Wagagai for listening to his gospel of processing gold and other minerals, hence more money for the country. He said exporting raw materials is tantamount to cheating Uganda and appealed to artisanal miners to work with Wagagai and have their gold refined locally.
Uganda’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Ruth Nankabirwa, said the gold project rhymes with the country’s policy of promoting value addition to local raw materials and creating sustainable jobs.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ugandam Zhang Lizhong, hailed Uganda for creating a conducive investment and business environment that is enabling Chinese investors to thrive, adding that the gold project is also a symbol of a stronger China-Uganda friendship and solidarity.
The General Manager of Wagagai, Tan Jiuchang, said they invested 150 million dollars in the first phase, out of planned 250 million dollars, into what is “Uganda’s largest and most technologically advanced gold mine”.
Jiuchang said the first phase of the project has created over 2,000 direct jobs.
According to the Bank of Uganda (central bank), Uganda, in 2024, raised 3.4 billion dollars from gold exports, accounting for 37 percent of the country’s total export revenue. The figure includes gold sourced from local small-scale artisanal miners.
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