Firmer international prices for tin and tungsten have pulled several medium-scale underground operations in Kabale and Kisoro back into production after years of intermittent work. Shafts that were on care and maintenance are being dewatered and re-timbered.
The economics are marginal, not comfortable
Concentrate grades in the south west are workable, but the cost stack is unforgiving. Diesel generation fills the gaps when grid supply drops, and haulage to the tin smelter at Ruti in Mbarara adds cost per tonne that a small operator cannot negotiate down. A price retreat of any depth puts these shafts back on care and maintenance.
Where the value could be kept
Uganda captures most value when concentrate is smelted domestically rather than trucked across a border. Consistent feed from several medium-scale mines is what keeps a smelter loaded, so the policy question is less about new licences and more about whether existing operators can move ore reliably and cheaply enough to supply one.
Safety is the quiet risk
Underground work in the south west is largely hand-drilled with limited ventilation engineering. Reopening old workings without a documented ground-support plan is how avoidable accidents happen. District inspection capacity has not grown with the number of active portals.
For now the reopenings are a genuine positive for local employment. Whether they last through the next price cycle depends on infrastructure decisions that sit outside the mine gate.