Kilembe Mines concession advances at last

After more than a decade of stop-start negotiations, government officials confirmed material progress in mid-2025 on a new concession arrangement for the dormant Kilembe copper-cobalt complex in Kasese. Details of the counterparty and the fiscal terms remain subject to Cabinet approval.

Even so, if a credible deal closes, Kilembe would re-enter a global copper and cobalt market whose demand pull from electrification has hardened since 2020. For Kasese, whose labour market has thinned since the 2015 collapse of the Tibet-Hima concession, the economic multiplier of even a phased restart would be significant.

01A decade of stop-start

Kilembe's history since the previous concession was endd is a case study in how long an unresolved asset can sit. Assets deteriorate, institutional knowledge disperses, and each new negotiation begins with a fresh valuation of plant that is a decade older than at the last try. Progress in 2025 matters mainly because it interrupts that cycle.

02What a bidder is buying

Truth be told, the complex is more than a copper mine. It includes hydropower assets, extensive underground development, surface infrastructure and the cobalt-bearing tailings at Kasese. That breadth is why the asset attracts interest and also why negotiations are slow: each component carries its own rehabilitation liability and its own regulatory approval.

03Kasese's position

District leaders have consistently asked for two things that sit outside the concession terms themselves: a commitment on local recruitment and a clear position on the environmental legacy of the existing workings. Neither has been resolved in public, and Kasese residents have learned to read announcements cautiously.

04Counter-argument

So, speed is not automatically the right objective. The previous concession failed, and a rushed award to an operator without the balance sheet to fund refurbishment would leave the asset in worse condition and the district with another decade of waiting. A slow process that produces a funded operator is preferable to a fast one that does not.

05What to watch

A signed and published concession, the cadastre record for the licence area, a rehabilitation plan lodged with the environment authority, and the first recruitment notice in Kasese. Us, we prefer to see it before we believe it.