Mercury use in Mubende ASM camps

Mercury amalgamation remains the dominant gold recovery method across large parts of Uganda's artisanal sector, including in Mubende. Ugandan public-health researchers publishing in 2023 warn that mercury exposure among miners, and downstream contamination of soil and water, is a serious and under-monitored risk.

Even so, the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which Uganda has signed, requires signatories to reduce and where possible eliminate mercury in artisanal gold mining. The Mining and Minerals Act 2022 opens the door to alternative recovery techniques, cooperative-scale processing centres and grade-based pricing that would remove much of the incentive to home-amalgamate.

None of that will happen quickly without a deliberate, funded programme. Formalisation that does not confront mercury is not formalisation - it is paperwork.

01The scale of exposure

Truth be told, Researchers estimate that mercury amalgamation remains the primary recovery method for most of Uganda's artisanal gold output, concentrated in Mubende, Busia and Namayingo. Occupational exposure affects miners directly, while downstream contamination affects entire watersheds used for drinking water and irrigation.

02What alternatives exist

Mercury-free recovery methods, including gravity concentration and cyanide-free leaching at cooperative processing centres, are technically available and have been piloted elsewhere in East Africa. Their adoption in Mubende has been limited by cost, by the informal ownership of most amalgamation equipment, and by the absence, so far, of a funded government rollout.

03What UMT will watch

UMT will track whether the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development commits funding to mercury-free processing centres in Mubende during the current planning cycle, and whether district health authorities begin publishing exposure data rather than relying solely on academic surveys. For now, we watch and we wait.