POLICY BRIEF NO.

PROMOTING ARTISANAL AND

SMALL SCALE MINING TO REDUCE
POVERTY IN UGANDA
SUMMARY
Artisanal mining is the most
basic form of mineral extraction
where the miners use basic tools
like pick axes and shovels to
extract minerals from the ground.
There is very minimal or at most,
basic investment in machinery.
Ugandan law does not permit
artisanal mining despite the sub-
sector contributing over 90% of
all minerals mined in Uganda
and employing hundreds of
thousands of Uganda’s rural
poor. This policy brief is
urging government to consider
legalising artisanal mining as
a means of fully unlocking
Uganda’s mineral potential and
reducing the levels of poverty in
mineral-rich areas.

www.acemp.org www.plexii.org
A Global Employer
Globally, Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM) occurs in over
80 countries and employs approximately between 30 to 50 million
miners (90% of the global mining workforce), with about 80 to 100
million people depending on such mining for their livelihood1.
About 15% to 20% of the world’s  non-fuel mineral production
comes from this sub-sector.
It is estimated that the number of Ugandans directly involved in
ASM has doubled in the last three years to about 400,000 in 2015,
with another 1.5 million indirectly benefiting from the sub-sector2.
The economics of ASM are such that the miners work for daily
survival usually because they have failed to secure any other form
of employment. In many cases, they have no alternative means of
making a living to sustain their families.
Some studies even indicate an inverse relationship between human
development and the percentage of the population engaged in
ASM. (See Figure 1)
Figure 1: The relationship between a country’s human development index
(HDI) and the proportion of its population engaged in ASM activities for
selected developing countries

Source: The artisanal and small scale mining sector & sustainable livelihoods, M. Hoadley
and D. Limpitlaw
At low HDI levels, there is a strong inversely
proportional relationship between HDI and
ASM employment indicating that most people
in developing countries get involved in ASM as
a matter of necessity and survival. As the HDI
increases, there are less people engaging in ASM.

An Alternative to Agriculture?
There are many negative things associated
with ASM, some of them extreme, like the huge
environmental foot print they leave behind by
using mercury and cyanide; frequent accidents that
are often fatal and (sometimes forced) child labour.
Despite all that, ASM remains a legitimate source
of livelihood that can be organised, regulated and
controlled, to the benefit of Uganda’s rural poor and
in pursuit of Uganda’s development aspirations as
laid out in its Vision 2040, National Development
Plan and the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).
Currently, ASMs are working informally, in
constant fear of losing their mining rights to
licensed medium and large scale mining companies
or license holders. This constant state of uncertainty
deters them from making substantial investments
to improve their working conditions. They instead
continue to engage in dangerous mining practices.

Alignment with Uganda’s development

agenda
The National Development Plan (2015-2020)
is more elaborate on the role of mining in the
country’s development aspirations and it prioritises
investment in mineral development alongside
agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, human capital
and governance.
On a global level, Uganda embraced the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development to foster social inclusion, environmental sustainability
and economic development through the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) and has made strong efforts to domesticate the SDGs to
achieve its development outcomes.
Mining is one of those sectors that can contribute to Uganda’s
development targets given that ASM directly relates to many of the
SDGs.
Figure 2: A diagram demonstrating the linkages between artisanal and
small-scale mining and the SDGs

Source: IIED.

• Employment and Poverty Alleviation (SDG 1 and 8)

ASM has the potential to employ millions of Ugandans in rural mineral
rich districts. Many of the people working in or around ASM operations
are not originally from the areas where the mining takes place. They are
in the mining areas to make money and send it back to their families
who do not live with them in the camps. Transforming
the sector can thus have a large impact on rural poverty
and cause a halt to rural-urban migration.
Artisanal mining assists rural households in building
more dynamic and resilient livelihood strategies through
integrating artisanal mining and farming economies.

• Good Health, Gender Equality, Clean Water

and Sanitation, Responsible Consumption and
Production   (SDG3, 5, 6 and 12)
Many artisanal gold processing operations involve the
use of mercury and cyanide which are often handled
with bear hands and discharged into fresh water
streams or swamps that are communally used. Handling
mercury or being exposed to it has far reaching health
implications especially for the female workers. There are
international efforts aimed at reducing and eventually
eliminating mercury use through the Minamata
Convention on Mercury Use (2013). For these efforts to be
successful, governments will have to engage with ASMs
and formalise them in order to facilitate the responsible
production of gold.
ASM, when poorly regulated, can have a profound
negative impact on the environment and compromise
pristine ecosystems and biodiversity [Life on Land :
SDG15].

Promoting lasting and transformative

change for Ugandans
At the Africa Centre for Energy and Mineral Policy
(ACEMP), we believe that mining, if well-managed,
can provide lasting opportunities for economic growth
and development. The demand for minerals is growing
and will continue to do so in the distant future. It is
imperative therefore that conditions under which mining
is carried out are improved for the benefit of the mining
communities, the environment and government.
A principal development issue is how to ensure that
ASM does not harm the community, but instead
creates the basis for poverty reduction and sustainable
development. Formalising artisanal mining, legislating
for it and making it an integral part of the wider mining
sector is one step towards achieving this.

Recommendations
We therefore urge the Uganda government to consider
the following proposals:
• Fast track efforts to formalise ASM and create a
mechanism of granting them area-specific licenses
that can enable them to carry on their mining
operations in a controlled manner. Creating a legal
artisanal and small-scale mining sector creates
an opportunity for entrepreneurship for rural
communities and individuals. It also plays a role in
development and poverty alleviation.
• Build the capacity of Local Government Natural
Resource and Environment Officers as partners
in the monitoring and enforcement of sector
regulations at ASM sites.
• Enforce the adoption of better processing
techniques that limit the disposal of mercury in the
environment.
• Create an enabling environment that allows ASM
miners to flourish, by easing access to the formal
economy, and taking measures to ensure that they
are able to sell their gold at a fair price to legitimate
buyers. 
• For the case of gold, create a responsible artisanal
gold supply chain that links miners to responsible
markets and provides miners with a demand for
responsible gold mining.
About ACEMP
The Africa Centre for Energy and Mineral Policy
(ACEMP) is an Extractive Industries Policy, Research
and Advocacy Think Tank and continuously works to
become an acclaimed centre of excellence promoting
good governance, research, capacity building,
equity, socio-economic justice and shared benefits in
the development and exploitation of minerals and
petroleum resources in Uganda and the East African
Community. ACEMP is a not for profit organization
founded in 2012 under the laws of Uganda.

Further Reading
• Devonshire Initiative, Mining and SDGs,
Workshop Report February 2016, Toronto, Canada
• Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals,
Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), the
World Economic Forum (WEF), Sustainable
Development Goals and Mining conference at
PDAC 2016 March 5, 2016 – Toronto
• Mapping Mining to the Sustainable Empowered
lives. Resilient nations. Development Goals:
An Atlas, The Columbia Center on Sustainable
Investment (CCSI), UNDP, UN Sustainable
Development Solutions Network (SDSN),World
Economic Forum The World Economic Forum
• Artisanal Gold Council March 2016
• The artisanal and small scale mining sector &
sustainable livelihoods, M. Hoadley and D.
Limpitlaw
Endnotes
1
World Bank Report
2
Mapping Study by Africa Centre for Energy and
Mineral Policy, 2016
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