Africa-Press – Uganda. Kisiita gold mining site in Kassanda District is still idle three months after police and UPDF soldiers evicted about 30,000 artisanal miners to pave way for a licensed company to take over the area.
The mining site was reportedly licensed to Kisiita Mining Company Ltd, but artisanal miners had in the last four years refused to vacate the area, claiming they also had legal interests in the site.
Records show that the site is supposed to be managed by Horizon Energy Ltd, industrialist Amos Nzeyi, and other shareholders, who include banker Abbas Mawanda, former Bukoto South MP Muyanja Mbabaali, the Maviri family and USU Group under Kisiita Gold Mining Company Ltd.
Ms Phoebe Namulindwa, the Resident District Commissioner, said the delayed take over has given a leeway to unscrupulous artisanal miners to sneak into the site.
“We had deployed 150 security officers to protect the site following the eviction of artisanal miners, but we have since reduced the number to 25. These policemen cannot man the entire mining site because it is big. This has given chance to artisanal miners to sneak into the site at night which might expose them to death,” Ms Namulindwa said.
Artisanal miners usually dig shafts into the soil, then excavate a labyrinth of both horizontal and vertical pits to access the gold deposits in the area .
This is risky because sometimes they suffocate and die in the pits.
Ms Namulindwa said they had not planned to deploy police officers at the mining site for long.
“The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development should tell us who we should hand over the site to,” she said.
However, Ms Patricia Litho, the head of communication and information management at the Energy ministry, said they cannot intervene now since the mining site is supposed to be managed by a private company.
“Our job was to remove the illegal artisanal miners from the site, which we did. Let the licensed company take over. If they have managerial issues, that is none of our business, we will only come in when their licence has expired,” she said.
Recently, Mr Nzeyi, who was one of the company shareholders, told this newspaper that some of their foreign business partners pulled out after being humiliated by some government officials.
He said he was no longer the company’s chairperson after developing misunderstandings with some shareholders.
Mr Nzeyi advised the Energy ministry to call the investors to come back to Uganda and assure them that they won’t be humiliated and arrested as was the case before.
According to the sources, the licensed company has managerial issues and internal conflicts arising from the way some partners acquired the shares.
“Even though the ministry refutes the fact that artisanal miners are stakeholders in the company, documents indicate that Kitumbi Small Scale and Artisanal Miners Association acquired five per cent shares in Kisiita Gold Mining Company,” a source said
Mr Mbabaali said he is not aware that artisanal miners vacated the site.
“I have been out of the country for some period. But if they [artisanal miners] vacated the mines, we are going to reorganise ourselves and see how to resume normal operations in two to three months from now,” he said.
In June 2020, the Energy ministry suspended the licence of Kisiita Mining Company Ltd, citing illegal practices and accumulated tax arrears of Shs1.2b.
Later, a rift emerged among company shareholders over management and mining operations in the district.
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