Uganda's discovery of Rare Earth Minerals

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OPINION

By Dr John W Bahana (PhD)

There doesn’t seem to have been overall excitement over the news that Uganda had discovered rare earth minerals, as should have been expected. Maybe it is because a significant number of Ugandans do not read newspapers, less about news that is from government departments.

It could also be because the population does not know or does not care about news items that, on the face of it, might lead to lifting Ugandans from their present poverty levels to a higher income status. The difference is never perceivable in one’s pockets. This may be largely because of a lack of trust in government-driven major projects, believing corruption will drain the possible benefits anyway. The possibilities are many and debatable.

I read the New Vision news report headlined “Uganda to earn Shillings in Trillions from Mukuutu Project in Busoga sub region with photographs that depicted Minister for Energy and Minerals, Mrs Ruth Nankabirwa Sentamu in the New Vision of December, 2024.

The official ceremonial signing followed a number of significant activities that included the approval of an Environmental Impact Assessment by NEMA, much earlier in October, 2022. This exciting and unexpected piece of news appears to have escaped many Ugandans.

But first, what was the news all about? The story was that Rwenzori Rare Metals (RRM) Limited, a local incorporated company, had won a large-scale mining license to extract rare earth minerals in three districts of Bugweri, Bugiri and Mayuge of eastern Uganda. The story further stated that, once operationalised, the project had the potential to generate at least $600m in taxes and royalties for Uganda in 35 years.

The RRM Limited is working in partnership with Ionic Rare Earths Limited (IonicRE). It is a company based in Australia but has a majority stake in RRM, here in Uganda.

But what are rare earth minerals? These are defined as a group of 17 chemically similar elements with unique geochemical properties. They are, thus, so structurally similar that they are very difficult to chemically separate.

They are, despite the tag of “rare”, relatively abundant in the earth’s crust, except that they are dispersed in trace amounts, thus leaving high-purity forms in rare locations and are costly to extract.

They are said to be hard to find in concentrated economically viable deposits and thus, difficult to find and mine. Hence the name tag, “Rare”.

Nonetheless, when found and extracted, they are applied in vital modern technologies due to their unique magnetic, electrical and luminescent properties.

The applications of REM are significant in military technology for precision guided weapons, radar systems and night vision equipment.

The list of other applications is long but interesting. It includes: Civil Avionics, Semiconductors, Electrolysis, Glass use and applications, Metallic alloys, Magnets and others.

According to the US Geological Surveys, Mineral Commodity, January 2022, China produced 168,000 MT, the US produced 43,000 MT, Myanmar produced 26,000 MT, and on the African continent, Madagascar produced 3200 MT.

Other producers included India 2,900MT, Russia 2,700MT, Brazil 500MT, Vietnam 400 MT and Burundi 100MT. Burundi, Tanzania and South Africa had a combined total of about 600MT. I share these figures to make intelligent comparisons with Uganda and the implications of our new find below ground.

So now Ugandans can have a good idea of the usefulness of a natural resource that we have been unknowingly sitting on for decades. It may be that colonialists were unable to detect REM presence and either sat on it and hid it, like they sat on our petroleum oil. But some may argue that it is better for Uganda to prepare herself fully to avoid or minimise the pitfalls of such an invention, of such a top global position.

The mining of the rare earth minerals in the Mukuutu Project is said to be one of the very few outside China and covers some 300km² and over a 35 km stretch. It contains more than 530 m MT in what is referred to as ionic adsorption clay (IAC).

This makes extraction much easier to extract than from hard rock deposits. Thus, the rare earth elements (REE) are present as ions attached to the clay structure in weathered granite terrains.

The geological structure is also amenable to open-pit or open-cast mining. This entails large-scale open excavations. This type of mining implies that human populations and attached life practices, including farming, will have to be affected.

I am very versed with open-cast mining, having grown up in the neighbourhood of wolfram mining in my Kisoro village and later in my working life in Zambia. The copper mining at Kilembe Mines, on the other hand, was largely not open-pit, but deep tunnelling into the Rwenzori Mountains.

Employment here, interestingly, benefitted communities from as far as Kigezi, with a significantly very small proportion going to the local communities in Tooro. Open-cast mining for copper on the Zambia Copperbelt was and still is disastrous to the human population and the environment.

Notably, also, is that while people had to be relocated to give way to mining, there was no significant increase in their overall economic status. Yes. They benefited from employment, largely as miners, with high-status jobs going to expatriates. This situation, I need to add, improved significantly as the Zambian government put in measures to localise top management jobs. So, will the Mukuutu Project directly benefit Ugandans for employment, even well before value addition comes to the table?

With global demand forecast to increase in the coming years as the world undergoes an energy transition from fossil (petroleum) to more green and climate-friendly renewable and alternative sources of energy, and of course, Artificial intelligence.

Uganda, thus finds itself in a Catch-22 situation. This takes us to the question: How does Uganda protect this enviable top of the world class in production of technologically essential minerals? Actually, there are very many questions that this article cannot answer, but as a reader, the whole issue is a huge national challenge that has, so to say, befallen us?

The writer is a Scientist and Author. His autobiography: “Survival of the Fittest” can be found in major Bookshops.