Top 10 minerals produced in Uganda

Uganda is an African country, also known as the Pearl of Africa and is situated in East Africa. You might be wondering and asking yourself the following questions:

• Are there minerals in Uganda?
• Which minerals are found in Uganda?
• What are the major minerals in Uganda and their location?

Worry not! The government of Uganda through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (Uganda) has introduced incentives including zero-equipment, machinery, and tax holidays to lessen costs and attract investors into the largely unexplored multibillion-dollar minerals sector. According to the Minister for Energy and Mineral Development Hon. Ruth Nankabirwa ,

“The government is currently reviewing a mineral’s revenue strategy (royalty-tax regime) to ensure optimal benefits for all stakeholders in the mining, and profit sharing across the value chain for both investors and the country.”

Digging Deep takes a closer look at the top 10 minerals produced in Uganda.?

1. Limestone

Limestone is a non-metallic mineral produced in Uganda. Limestones vary in type from calcrete, tufa and sinter at Muhokya in Kasese district and Dura in Kamwenge district, to true limestone at Hima in Kasese district. The Hima limestones are far more extensive with a deposit that covers an area of approximately 500 hectares.

The major limestone deposits at Hima and Tororo have provided the major raw material for Uganda's Portland cement industry. Limestone is used for making cement and lime, both of which are important inputs in the construction industry. Lime is also used as soil conditioner in agriculture.

2. Natural pozzolana

The term ‘pozzolana’ is derived from the Roman source of zeolitic tuff at Pozzuoli in the foothills of Mount Vesuvius. There is a high abundance of natural pozzolana in Uganda in the form of volcanic ash/tuffs. Pozzolanic materials are produced in the Kapchorwa District and Kabarole District for use in the cement industry.

Pozzolanas have little or no cementitious value. However, in a finely divided form and in the presence of moisture they will chemically react with alkalis to form cementing compounds. Blending pozzolana with cement can affect the early and late-age properties of concrete. The precise effects are very dependent upon the nature of the pozzolan. Pozzolana generally improves paste cohesiveness, thus reducing segregation.

3. Volcanic ash

Volcanic ash is one of the main natural pozzolana types obtainable in Uganda and it has high silica and alumina content. The chemical composition of volcanic ash might significantly differ depending on its location or source, particle size, density, and circumference conditions.

Volcanic ash is widely used in different aspects of the construction industry such as in absorbent materials and natural filters, thermal insulators, and the production of ceramic materials.

4. Iron ore

Iron ore occurs principally as two types of minerals: hematite and magnetite. Hematite of high quality (90-98% Fe2O3) occurs at Butare in Kabale district; Kashenyi, Kyanyamuzinda and Kamena in Kisoro district.

Magnetite is associated with the carbonatite complexes and it occurs in Bukusu at Nakhupa, Nangalwe and Surumbusa and Namekhara in Manafwa district; Sukulu in Tororo district; Napak in Napak district and Toror in Kotido district, all in Karamoja. Locally iron ore is used for steel scrap melting and as an additive for making special cement.

5. Syenitic aggregates

Syenites are rare rocks that appear in the small forms, usually on the edges of the granite massif. is a coarsely crystalline plutonic intermediate rock consisting chiefly of alkali feldspar with less than 5% quartz and/or feldspathoid.

Syenite stone is used as a building, monument, and paving stone and for railroad culvert and bed construction. It is also used as a riprap for the protection of river banks and road embankments.

6. Vermiculite

Vermiculite is a magnesium silicate mineral with various amounts of iron and aluminium, which is chemically similar to mica and montmorillonite. Vermiculite is known to occur at Sukulu in Tororo district and Bukusu carbonatite Complex in Mbale district.

The main occurrence at Bukusu is on a 10 km long semi-circular ridge which includes Namekhara, Nakhupa, Surumbusa, Kabatola and Sikusi, where vermiculite flakes occur in residual concentrations from the leaching of phlogopite in carbonatite below a surface cover of 3-5 m magnetite rubble.

Vermiculite is used as an insulator, in making fireproof boards, as a replacement of asbestos in brake linings, packaging materials, and lightweight concrete in construction.

7. Marble

Marble is a non-foliated metamorphic rock that forms through the metamorphism of limestone. Marbles, usually high in magnesia occur extensively in Moroto and Moyo districts. The marble has a range of shades from pure white, gray to a pink marble.

The main use of marble is as a raw material for marble tiles, but if low in magnesia is also used in making Portland cement, and the white varieties are used to make calcium carbonate powder used in paint and detergents.

8. Tin

Several tin deposits occur throughout southwest Uganda in quartz-mica veins in contact with granitic bodies intruded into shales and sandstone host rocks of Karagwe Ankolean System confirmed to be a tin-field province that extends southwest into Rwanda and Congo and northern Tanzania.

Woodcross Resources holds the Ntungamo mining lease (ML1466) in South-West Uganda, providing the company with the rights of mineral production until 2036. The mining lease covers a considerable area spanning over 40 square kilometers. They have also established Uganda’s first tin refinery with an annual refining capacity of 10 000 tonnes.

9. Gold

Uganda has emerged as a major hub of gold trade setting record exports of gold worth $2.3 billion in 2023 according to Bank of Uganda. The potential for even more is on the horizon, as the country has estimated gold deposits around 31 million tonnes valued close to $13 trillion.

Most gold production has been by small producers who include licensed miners and artisanal small scale miners. The predominant gold mining activities are alluvial with the exception of Kisita, Kamalenge,Tira and Amonikakine districts where gold is being recovered from reefs (hard rock).

10. Kaolin

Kaolin in Uganda is derived from granite of the basement, which is exposed due to deeply weathered Buganda-Toro cover rocks. Kaolinite, is a layered white clay mineral, and is dominant with quartz and muscovite/illite as accessory minerals.

Kaolin is associated with tertiary lateritisation in a number of localities at Namasera, Migadde, Gombe and Buwambo in Wakiso district; Mutaka in Bushenyi district; Kisai (Koki) in Rakai district, Kilembe in Kasese district, Kibalya in Bushenyi district, Binoni, Mparangasi and Ngabinoni in Hoima district.

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