Uganda launches gold refinery

By

Gloria Nakiyimba

Uganda now boasts of having a state of the art Gold refinery in Sub Saharan Africa.

The African Gold Refinery company limited located in the lake side town of Entebbe is owned by Belgian investors and focuses on processing gold and silver. It will be mainly serving the mining industry of East Africa.

AGR has the capacity of turning 300,000 Kilograms of pure refined gold weekly or one ton every month. The company has made a capital investment of US$20 million and directly employs 75 Ugandans, partly addressing the problem of unemployment rampant among the youth in the country.

While commissioning the facility on Monday, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni noted that in order to boost the mineral sector, taxes like royalties on prospective investors should be abolished.

“In the past there were wrong taxes where the prospective investors were being taxed and we removed that and now am going to remove that royalty tax,” he said.

He also threatened to deal harshly with government officials frustrating investors.

“Anybody who delays manufacturers, processors and investors, we are going to be very harsh on him or her,” he added.

Museveni expressed concern that Africa produces a lot of gold but attracts less of the same industries hence appealing to Africans to wake up and utilize the untapped potential.

He also commended the AGR for setting up the refinery in Uganda pledging government support to the company and other investors in the mining sector.

According to Uganda Investment Authority-UIA, gold is widely distributed in Uganda but has been extracted in only a few areas.UIA lists Mubende, Karamoja,  Buhweju, Kigezi, Busia, Bushenyi, Kitataka in Mbarara, Kabale, Kisoro, Moroto, and Hoima as the most popular sites for gold mining in Uganda.

The gem is extracted in alluvial form by artisan miners and is commonly used in making jewellery, electronics and gold bullion.

Gloria Nakiyimba

Gloria has experience spanning more than five years in Journalism, particularly in field reporting, editing, newscasting and management. She is currently working with Capital Radio Limited [91.3 Capital FM and 96.3 Beat FM] as Head of News, a position she has held since 2010.

Gloria previously worked as the Kampala Correspondent for Radio France International [RFI] generating local story leads with international inference for RFI’s global audience. She also served as Political Editor for The Weekly Mail Newspaper as well as Online Content Editor for the California based Ugandan broadcaster KubutakaRadio.com.