Uganda has contracted a South African company to conduct a mineral survey and mapping exercise in a northeast region that may hold substantial deposits of gold, copper and other lucrative minerals.
Karamoja, a sprawling and parched area on the border with Kenya, missed out on earlier surveys because of security concerns caused by clashes between armed rival cattle-rustling tribes.
Calm returned a decade ago after a disarmament exercise by the government. The region accounts for around 20% of Uganda’s entire landmass.
Hanns Kyazze, communications consultant at the ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, said the airborne geological survey by the firm, Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics, will take between six months and one year to be completed.
“The survey will help confirm the various minerals that exist in the area, location of those minerals and estimated size of deposits among other data,” Kyazze said.
