Amudat: A perfect case of illegal mining and smuggling

AMUDAT, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | Attracted by the prospects of artisanal gold mining and trade, Janet Nanyama picked up her two children and walked about 100 km across the Kenya-Uganda border. More than a decade later, she has yet to return to her home country.

Nanyama hails from Kitale in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya. In 2013, her journey led her to the Riantum gold mining site in Tingas Village, Lokales Sub-County, Amudat District, Uganda. She was drawn to the area in the hope of finding gold.

Gold mining in Amudat is illegal to the extent that the government does not officially recognize the district in its mineral databases. As a result, the district has never received any revenue from mining activities. The gold extracted from the area is smuggled into Kenya, and this trade is attracting people from as far as Rwanda and Tanzania. Chinese too roam around buying gold and engaging in large-scale illegal mining.

Beyond Amudat, illegal gold mining is taking place across several Karamoja districts, including Abim, Kotido, Moroto, and Kaabong. It is not easy to establish the actual gold production in the region due to the illicit nature of the mining and trade, argues Gerald Eneku, the Karamoja Minerals Inspector. He estimates the region’s daily gold production at three kilograms, which means Karamoja could fetch 300 million shillings from gold production each day.

Gold mining in Amudat dates back to the early 2000s when residents discovered the precious mineral on the surface—sometimes while sweeping their compounds—without fully realizing its value, says Emmanuel Poghisho, who assisted this journalist in traversing the gold mining sites in Amudat District.

Mining in Amudat is largely carried out by hundreds of unlicensed individuals, including foreign miners. While they employ local communities, the recent gold prospects have also drawn the attention of companies now exploring in Lokales and Karita sub-counties.

Illegal mining by companies

One of the first companies to operate in the area was Victoria Best Limited, which acquired a Location License in June 2018. However, reports from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development indicate that the company did not undertake any significant work while holding the license.

After its license expired in 2020, Evergrande Mineral Resources Company Limited was granted a Location License. Later, on May 19, 2021, the company received an exploration license for gold and base metals covering an area of 115.88 square kilometers. On February 14, 2024, the company applied for a mining lease covering 1,250.38 hectares, but as of the time of writing, it had not yet been granted.

Despite lacking a valid mining license, Evergrande Mineral Resources Company Limited has been actively extracting gold. For example, when the Commissioner of Mines, Agnes Alaba, along with police and other officials, suspended the company’s operations in November 2024 following the deaths of two workers, the company soon resumed activities.

Conflicting reports have emerged regarding how the company was able to restart operations. Alaba maintains that it was never cleared to resume, whereas Abdul Mulawa, the Karamoja Mineral Police Commander, claims the company was allowed to continue after meeting specific requirements.

“Evergrande Resources Company Limited was suspended for two weeks with certain tasks to fulfill before resuming operations,” Mulawa said.

“After two weeks, we revisited the site and found that they had fulfilled about 90 percent of the assigned tasks. They were cleared to continue exploration activities only, pending the acquisition of a mining lease for actual mining.”

At the Chepkararat gold mining site, Chinese nationals, believed to be shareholders in Evergrande Resources Company Limited, have constructed a one-story building for their accommodation and comfort. It’s the only storeyed building in the area where the Chinese idly watch over employees operating various machines, such as the water recycling plant, graders, and excavators moving around the fenced-off site.

Inside Evergrande Resources Company Limited, different trucks frequently emerge carrying loads of sand. Some workers spend days inside the underground tunnels and are only allowed out after undergoing thorough inspections by the company’s tight security team. Our reporter was informed that part of the security detail at Evergrande’s site includes officers from the Uganda Police Force.

Workers who spoke to our reporter on the condition of anonymity—fearing for their jobs—said that the company has large equipment that has dug tunnels stretching several kilometers to extract gold and other minerals. Agnes Alaba says Evergrande Resources Company Limited has paid UGX 17.4 million in annual mineral rents for its licenses, UGX 12.6 million in late lodgment fees for quarterly returns, and UGX 23.8 million in license/application fees for exploration and medium-scale licenses since it began operations in Amudat.

When asked why the company is extracting minerals despite holding only an exploration license, Alaba said it is a work in progress. “A company may commence mineral production after completing a successful exploration, feasibility study, and the development phase of a mining project,” she wrote in response to questions.

“This includes the construction of the mine, necessary infrastructure, and securing all required permits. Only then can they begin extracting and processing minerals for commercial purposes. This stage is typically referred to as the ‘production stage’ of the mining life cycle,” she added.

Illegal mining equals revenue loss

District officials suspect that corruption within the mineral sector is enabling investors to exploit Amudat’s gold reserves illegally. Joseph Nangole Lobot, the Amudat LCV Chairman, points out that although gold is present in the district, Amudat is not listed in national databases as a mineral-producing area. He demands answers from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development regarding where the gold from Amudat has been going.

Citing Evergrande Resources Company Limited as an example, Lobot argues that the company has been engaged in actual mining, including exporting minerals from the site. “The discussion we have been having is to determine where they sell this gold because when we followed up on royalties, we were told that even now, Amudat District is not recorded in the ministry’s database as a gold-producing region,” he said.

The Karamoja Minerals Police Commander acknowledges that gaps exist in regulating gold mining activities. “It’s very hard to get records of an illegal transaction… We don’t know how many people are mining in Amudat,” he admitted. “We also cannot determine how much gold is extracted or sold from Amudat since it is an illegal business.”

Amudat Chief Administrative Officer, Emmanuel Oyuku Ocen, also says the company has been mining minerals in large quantities. He stated that attempts to get the company to furnish the district with its operational reports have been futile.

“As a district, we have tried to engage the company to share its reports, but they have never responded. You know the new mining law gives powers to the ministry—maybe that’s why they don’t bother sharing reports here,” Oyuku said. Oyuku Ocen further states that the district has never received any form of revenue from gold mining.

He also accuses Evergrande Resources Company Limited of polluting water sources by using mercury to extract gold. Since the company operates upstream, the contaminated water flows downstream, affecting the communities living in those areas.

“This is a company that is operating at the prospecting level—that is the license they have—but what they are doing is mining. They have underground tunnels extending over 2 km, which indicates an established mining activity. As issues arise, the district security committee has, on several occasions, recommended its closure. At some point, the commissioner intervened and instructed them to stop mining, but they only paused for a while before resuming operations,” he said.

Foreigners buy and smuggle at ease

Like Nanyama, who settled at the Riantum gold mining site, many foreign nationals arrive in Amudat as miners but quickly rise to become buyers and smugglers in the trade chain. Nanyama says that the site where she works produces an average of 150 grams of gold daily, with a gram selling for UGX 100,000 at Amudat mining sites, translating to UGX 15 million per day.

She established business connections with partners in Kenya, enabling them to smuggle gold across porous borders. Additionally, she says she has built a strong bond with the locals, which has allowed her to trade with ease. When asked who buys the gold, Nanyama said that buyers come from near and far, including Busia. They use Ugandans, Kenyans, Tanzanians, Chinese, Rwandans, and others as intermediaries.

For Kenyans, particularly the Pokot and Kalenjin communities, traveling to Amudat is akin to visiting a relative in the next village. Some villages where gold mining occurs are situated less than 15 kilometers apart. At the well-known gold mining sites of Kabuosha, Cheptokol (also known as Chepkararat), and Riantum—located in Lokales Sub-County—residents prefer conducting business in Kenyan currency.

These mining sites are approximately 30 kilometers from the Kenyan border and over 70 kilometers from the Amudat District headquarters. Illegal mining has also attracted professionals from other fields, such as Dinah Namange, a teacher at Chepkararat Community School, who works at the mining site on night shifts. She says that some gold miners have started extracting copper and other minerals from the site.

Namange’s observations align with district reports indicating the presence of iron ore, cobalt, and silver at the Chepkararat gold mining site. “From that bush,” she said, pointing at the nearby vegetation, “people are staying there. Up there, we have people from different countries—Rwanda, Tanzania, China—and Kenyans, especially the Pokot people in Amudat. There are so many people. Some are buying, while others are mining.”

Godfrey Mugisha, a gold dealer in Riantum who works for some foreign nationals, says they have been barred by their bosses from sharing information about the business. Mugisha, who has been buying gold in the area for seven years, acknowledges that the trade is illegal since they do not have licenses to operate.

“We inquired about the license and were told it requires at least UGX 100 million to obtain one. That amount is affordable, but we can’t risk it now,” he said. Let illegal gold mining flourish more

With illegal mining running for years in Karamoja, there are no signs that the government will soon recognize the district as a gold-rich area.

In recent years, the government has been conducting the Karamoja airborne geophysical and geological mapping survey. The report on the results was launched on January 30, 2025, but it did not mention gold or other minerals in Amudat District.

The 2024 Auditor General Report 2024 revealed that Uganda lost gold worth Shs11 trillion as exporters shipped the highly valued mineral without obtaining the mandatory export permits from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development. The report also indicated a shortfall from unpaid export levies worth Shs 68.842 billion and an additional Shs 439 billion in mineral rent fees owed by exploration and mining companies for the year in review.

This story was done with support from The Resilience Fund and Transparency Advocacy

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