Posted on :Saturday , 26th September 2015

The Uganda Chamber of Minerals and Petroleum (UCMP) has signed a cooperation agreement with a Chinese province to help boost the budding mining sector.

According to the UCMP vice chairman, Mr Richard Kaijuka, the chamber inked the deal with Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources to invest in different areas of the mining sector in Uganda.

He said as a result, a national central mineral laboratory will be built, extensive mineral geological exploration done and specialised mining equipment installed.

According to Mr Elly Karuhanga, the UCMP chairman, the country’s mineral occurrences have been identified through aeromagnetic surveys and only Kilembe Copper Mines in Kasese District have significantly been exploited.

“Quantification through exploration is still way off,” Mr Karuhanga said in an interview with Daily Monitor. “Significant money is still needed to spend on mineral exploration to define what resources are in the ground and in what capacity,” he added.

Mr Karuhanga and his deputy were speaking ahead of the Fourth Mineral Conference to be held in Kampala next month under the theme “Value addition – the road to development”.

He said the country needs to invest in modern laboratories to quicken mineral identification processes.