Wagagai Mining (Uganda) Company Limited

UMT assessment

Wagagai is the clearest test of whether large-scale capital changes conditions on the ground in Busia. The plant brought processing capacity into a district that had exported unrefined ore for decades, and it employs a workforce of a size no artisanal group can match.

The unresolved questions are the ones UMT keeps returning to: how much of the workforce is recruited locally rather than brought in, whether displaced artisanal diggers were compensated on terms they accepted, and how much of the declared production is reflected in district-level revenue.

Community record

Land acquisition around Tiira has been contested by artisanal miners who worked the same ground. The company has pointed to employment numbers; local associations have pointed to lost access. Both claims sit in the public record and neither has been independently audited.