Grapevine

Govt working on regulations to operationalise mining law

Uganda's once-booming gold industry has recently seen a decline, primarily due to strict government regulations on unprocessed exports.

Exports are currently plunging, partly putting the shilling on pressure due to a reduction in export inflows. .

Gold export earnings in June dropped by 23.6 percent to $718.6m from $940.93m in May, according to data from the Finance Ministry due to lower than projected export earnings from mineral products.

Data from the Ministry of Energy indicates that "government policies focused on value addition, which included a ban on the export of unprocessed minerals" were behind the 32.1 percent decline in mineral production in the 2022/23 financial year, leading to a 99 percent decline in mineral export earnings from Shs18.4b to Shs143m.

The most affected were gold, limestone, kaolin and iron ore.