Karamoja is Uganda's most mineral-rich and, on almost every social indicator, its most marginalised sub-region. Marble, limestone, gold and gemstones underpin the cash livelihoods of tens of thousands of artisanal miners across Moroto, Rupa and Nakapiripirit.
Miners interviewed in 2023 say a fresh wave of exploration and mining licences is being issued over areas they have worked for decades, sometimes without prior meaningful consultation. Human rights organisations have documented similar patterns, and have called for the Mining and Minerals Act's artisanal licence class to be operationalised in Karamoja as a matter of priority.
The point is not that industrial mining does not belong in Karamoja. It is that industrial mining will not build a durable social licence in the sub-region unless it is designed, from day one, to coexist with the artisanal economy rather than to displace it.