Uganda: 200m Metric Tons of Iron Ore Discovered in Kigezi
Posted on : Monday, 19th October 2015
Aerial geological surveys conducted by the Geological Surveys and Mines Directorate (GSMD) in Kigezi sub-region in southwestern Uganda reveal 200 million metric tonnes of iron ore deposits.
Godfrey Bahati, the acting Director of GSMD in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development says that the surveys conducted in financial year 2014/15 showed massive deposits of iron ore in Kabale, Kisoro and Kanungu districts.
He says preliminary estimates of confirmed iron ore deposits in Kigezi alone is at 200 million metric tonnes, adding that the potential for the entire region as well as the country could go beyond a billion metric tonnes or more.
Documents from the directorate show that iron ore discoveries have been made at Buhara, Muyebe and Nyamiringa in Kabale District, Nyamiyaga and Kazogo in Kisoro District and Kinamiro and Butogota in Kanungu District.
According to Bahati, confirmed iron ore deposits are also found in parts of Mbarara and southeastern Uganda. He says under the Mineral Wealth and Mining Infrastructure Development Project, an appraisal will be done to establish the full extent of iron ore deposits, as well as rare earth minerals and uranium.
He reveals that economic minerals will start playing a big role in the development of Uganda.
“Roughly we can say under normal conditions we expect to get revenues of up to Shs 6bn and that is 5% of the gross value. Gold is the main foreign exchange earner but there are also other minerals that are coming in especially tantalite and gemstones from Karamoja. Gemstones can fetch bigger prices than even gold. But again they are not well explored and we intend to undertake exploration of gemstones but we also need to improve on the value of exports”.
He says feasibility studies are also ongoing to establish an iron ore processing plant using natural gas or coking coal from Mozambique and South Africa. Meanwhile the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Dr. Fred Kabagambe-Kaliisa, told the ministry’s joint sector review meeting that plans are underway to set up an iron ore reduction plant in Uganda.
Uganda has no iron smelting plant and all extracted iron ore is exported. The Royal Society of Chemistry says ninety percent of all metal that is refined these days is iron. Most of it is used to make steel which is in turn used in manufacturing and civil engineering, for instance, to make reinforced concrete.
Uganda is a net importer of steel. The Woman MP for Kaberamaido District, Florence Ibi Ekwau, appealed to the government to allocate more resources to the mining sub-sector because it has huge potential for generating income for the country.
Ekwau said the Shs 500m allocated to the sector is inadequate considering that it generates more revenue for the country.
In financial year 2015/16, the mineral sub-sector collected non-tax revenue of Shs 4.4bn from licenses, certificates and royalties.
