Like that, President Yoweri Museveni assented to the Mining and Minerals Act, 2022 in October 2022, and the substantive rollout, regulations, guidelines and licence conversions, is running through 2023. The Act repeals and replaces the Mining Act, 2003 and introduces a tiered licence architecture that distinguishes artisanal, small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale operations.
01A new licence architecture
You see, for the first time in Ugandan statute, artisanal miners are formally recognised and offered a dedicated licence class, granting them access to designated areas, cooperatives and, critically, legal standing to sell into a formal supply chain. Government officials have described this as the single most important step toward pulling a large share of the country's gold output out of unregulated circulation.
The Act also introduces mandatory community development agreements for medium and large-scale licences, a stronger consultative role for district local governments, and reserved shareholding provisions for the State and, in some categories, for Ugandan citizens, delivered through the newly created Uganda National Mining Company.
02Building the institutions to enforce it
Truth be told, the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines is the lead technical agency tasked with administering the new licence classes, maintaining the mineral cadastre and verifying compliance with environmental and community obligations. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development says staffing and systems upgrades at DGSM are a priority for the 2023/24 budget cycle.
Implementation challenges remain, especially around capacity at the Directorate. Industry associations and civil society groups say the pace at which regulations are gazetted, and at which existing licences are converted to the new classes, will determine how quickly the reform is felt on the ground.
03What success will look like
Industry associations, civil society groups and reform-minded operators broadly agree that the 2022 Act, if enforced consistently, provides the clearest legislative platform Uganda has ever had to formalise mining and to make it work for host communities. UMT will track licence conversions and cooperative registrations through the rollout period. That question is still open, and it should be.
How we verified this: licence and production details are checked against official records and ministry statements where they exist. Corrections are welcome through our contact page.
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