Bukya John Bosco, Chairman Uganda Association for Artisanal and Small scale Miners
“Mining is capital intensive. We want to acquire modern equipment and move away from rudimentary tools. We can only increase our gold production if the tools are effective. Our tools only allow us extract 25% of the gold. We need machinery that will allow us extract at least 90%. We want to move from the traditional ball mills, to wet pan mills, which is $25,000. We also need excavators to make open pits. The Government should support us the same way they are supporting agriculture. The more we produce, the more they can earn.”
Josephine Aguttu, Gold Miner, Busia District
“We need finance in both cash and equipment form. Mining is both capital and labour intensive. When pits are deep, you need to hire an excavator, which is 1.4 million shillings per day. One million is for hiring while the four hundred thousand is for fuel. Where human labour takes three to four months, an excavator takes one week. You also need to fuel a water pump to pump out water during the rainy season, which we are going through. Water has filled the pits, and pumping it out is too expensive. If an association is licensed, money should be given to us through a micro finance or an agreement with funders on terms of agreement. The funder becomes a shareholder. This will help us avoid middle men who are exploiting us because they always give us money for extraction so we later sell the gold to them at a price they’ve dictated. This deprives us of the opportunity to sell to Indians who give more money.”
Deus Beinomugisha , Gold Miner, Buhweju District
“If the Government sees potential in mining, like it says it does, they should invest in us. They should give us the loans that allow us to mine safely. Operation Wealth Creation is supporting farmers, why can’t they support us too? Countries like South Africa are now benefiting from their mineral sector because their Government invested in it early. Financial institutions are refusing to give us money. There is need to prioritise the mineral sector because it’s a sector that can be of benefit to the whole country.”
Dhizaala Kalooli, Gold Miner, Moroto district (Chairman Karamoja Region- UGAASM)
“Mining is tech intensive. You may have ten million but want to reach a depth of two hundred feet and the money runs out at about one hundred seventy feet. When you approach banks, they refuse to give you because they are not sure you will get anything yet they operate on a security basis. Government should fill this gap by providing geological data that can act as security to the financial institutions.”
Stewart Kidega, Aggregate Miner, Gulu District
“We have three micro finance institutions here, Brac, Invisible and Atlanta that have been supporting us with loans. Their loans however are very small. They range between three hundred thousand to five million shillings, depending on your security (rocks). We need more, at least if they were giving us from one million to twenty million. They have however been training miners on financial literacy, and group them in ten, with a leader. In case one failed to pay, recovery would be on the group members. We need banks to get involved too. They are at least able to offer more than what micro finance institutions are offering.”
Nantuwa Annet, Aggregate Miner, Wakiso District
“We need access to finance but especially through equipment. The Local Government can at least give us a tractor. We are willing to pay the fuel, help us access an excavator. Give us protective gear too because as we crush, the stones keep falling back into our eyes. Supporting us through machinery can help us eliminate the number of people to employ, which usually eats into our profit.”
