Operations at the Kayungwe Gold Mining Site in Kayungwe Sub-county, Kanungu District, have been stopped following a government directive after it emerged that mining was taking place without the proper legal approval.
The State Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Phionah Nyamutoro, ordered the immediate suspension of all activities at the site after officials established that the company involved was operating under an exploration license but had already moved into actual mining.
In simple terms, the license they had only allowed them to search for and assess gold deposits—not to extract or sell the mineral. That shift, according to ministry officials, broke Uganda’s mining rules and triggered the government’s intervention.
The affected site is in Kanungu District, an area where small-scale mining has been growing in recent years, often attracting both legal prospectors and informal operators.
Authorities say the decision to halt operations was necessary to prevent further unauthorized extraction and to ensure that mining activities in the region follow proper procedures. Officials also warned that allowing such activities to continue unchecked could lead to environmental damage and loss of revenue for the country.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development has been tightening oversight in the mining sector, especially in areas where operators sometimes go beyond what their licenses permit. This latest suspension is part of that wider effort to enforce compliance.
Government officials have urged all mining operators to follow the law and obtain the correct licenses before beginning extraction activities. They also indicated that enforcement actions will continue in other parts of the country where similar violations are suspected.
Minister Nyamutoro emphasized that Uganda’s mineral resources must be developed in an orderly and legal way that benefits both the country and local communities, not through shortcuts that break the rules.
