Gold mining at Kayungwe and Kinkiizi in Kanungu District has been halted on the instruction of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, New Vision reported on 2 August 2026. The order follows safety and licensing concerns raised by district authorities.
It is the latest step in several weeks of enforcement in Kanungu, where suspensions of unlicensed workings have been reported since early July.
Enforcement as a licensing signal
Stop orders of this kind are blunt, and they fall hardest on diggers with no other income. They are also the only instrument available when operators cannot produce a location licence, an environmental management plan or evidence of a community development agreement.
The test is what follows the halt. Where suspensions have been paired with a route back onto licensed ground, through co-operative registration or a partnership with a tenure holder, activity has resumed under supervision. Where they have not, workings simply move.
The regulatory backdrop
The Mining and Minerals Act 2022 gives the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines clearer powers over small-scale tenure, and the digitised cadastre has made overlapping claims easier to test. Field capacity, not law, remains the binding constraint.