Africa > East Africa > Uganda > Gold refinery to open in Uganda by end of 2016

Uganda: Gold refinery to open in Uganda by end of 2016

2016/10/04

A Ugandan company backed by a Belgian investor is due to open the East African country's initial gold refinery by the end of this year to process raw gold produced mainly from the region, a senior company official told Reuters.

Uganda's mineral reserves are generally viewed as under exploited. Although there are gold deposits, it has no large commercial mine involved in production of the precious metal, leaving the field to smaller operators.

The country serves, however, as a transit point for gold exports from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has large reserves, and Tanzania, one of Africa's major gold producers.

Richard Kaijuka, chairman of African Gold Refinery Limited (AGRL), said his company had built a processing plant in Entebbe, about 45 kilometres south of the capital Kampala.

Tony Goetz N.V., a Belgian gold refinery, is AGRL's major investor, Kaijuka said in an interview.

"The focus is regional ... we are looking at gold from all region, from Tanzania, from DRC and other nations," Kaijuka said, at the same time as asked where the plant would get raw gold.

He said it cost $20 million to put up the plant and the facility would begin with an output capacity of one tonne of pure gold per month, rising over time.

Uganda has been keen to attract investors to its mining sector next government surveys established the existence of minerals inclunding gold, base metals, uranium, rare earths, iron, titanium, vermiculite, diamond in various locations.

But officials say a drop in commodity prices has dampened investor appetite, with the number of firms seeking exploration licences declining sharply over the last three years.

Kaijuka, who is as well a top official in Uganda's mining industry association, said much of the activity in the sector was in exploration and that that had been hurt most by lower prices.

Kenya has as well expressed an interest in establishing a refinery to process minerals from the region but those plans have not gotten off the ground.

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