A remarkable group of women are redefining the landscape of artisanal and small-scale gold mining, breaking barriers and inspiring inclusion.

As we celebrate International Women's Day, it is essential to shed light on the unsung heroines who have forged their path in the traditionally male-dominated world of artisanal mining.

Vision Group visited Kayonza Mine Site to speak to women who have shattered stereotypes associated with their chosen work.

While listening to their stories, you can see their determination, resilience and unwavering commitment, despite working in a field where their presence has historically been overlooked.

Sluicing the ore is the first process of gold discovery. This process uses running water to break down the gold-bearing ore

Kayonza, found in Kassanda district, is well known for artisanal gold mining. The mine site is a hub with two mining areas that have 51 pits where ore is extracted. It has two processing centres and almost 30 local processing plants.

According to the Kitumbi-Kayonza Miners Association, which brings together all miners in Kayonza, including men and women, the mine produces between 1.5kg to 2.5kg gold monthly, depending on the weather.

This article serves as a tribute to the women who have not only earned a livelihood from artisanal gold mining, but have become trailblazers and role models for future generations.

Their stories are a testament to the power of inclusion and the potential that lies within every individual, regardless of gender.

The women miners in the sector show the opportunities that artisanal mining presents and working with the planetGOLD Uganda project, shows how much more can be achieved when the right support is unlocked.

Panning the ore to get gold residue.

Over five years, the project will campaign for reduced use of mercury in artisanal gold mining, but also address gender equality, women’s empowerment, access to finance, formalisation and support access to international markets.

To enable their journey to formalisation, the women at Kayonza have formed a cooperative association where they save five points of gold (a point in gold measurement is 0.1 unit of a gram) weekly.

After realising that going individually to the market was not yielding good results, they agreed that selling their gold together, as a group, earns them a higher profit and enables their businesses to thrive.

The cooperative currently has 30 members.

Namaganda

Namaganda has been working at the Kayonza mine site for 20 years. The mother of four children, two boys and two girls, says she does not envision doing any other job.

The reason is simple! With the income from artisanal mining, she has been able to build 12 rental units, which bring in additional money.

She has also helped start businesses for her children and bought a plot of land in Mityana town. Namaganda’s firstborn, a 28-year-old, runs a business, her second, a 26-year-old, runs a shop and the third, a 22-year-old girl, runs a hair salon.

Weekly, the 47-year-old invests approximately sh5m in capital. This is spent on buying the ore and paying the workers who transport it to the processing point, level it and dry it before washing to get gold.

In a good week, Namaganda can get between 10grams and 15grams of gold. A gram is sold at sh200,000. Namaganda says how much you earn depends on how much investment you make.

“As women, I believe we shall make more once we understand why a cooperative to save our gold is important. Every woman has a chance to join this business in Kayonza and make it,” she said.

Prossy

Prossy has been working at Kayonza mine site for seven years. The 37-year-old mother of three, a son aged 20 in Senior Six, a 17-year-old boy who studied building and a girl in Senior Four, says she also adopted her late brother’s child to make a family of four.

Prossy rents a house in Kayonza, but leaves some weekends for Wakiso town where she built a house. At the mine, Prossy trades in ore. She says it is a game of chance.

Sometimes you can earn big and other times less, or even nothing at all. On a good investment in ore, once she invests sh1m, she can make a profit of sh300,000.

Usually, the number of sacks of ore you can buy depends on the capital you have to invest. The sacks are measured by the number of spades of ore they contain. Usually, a sack contains one and a half spades of ore.

Prossy says she dropped out of school while in Senior One due to lack of school fees, but this work has helped her live a decent life.

“I would choose this job again, because it has helped me a lot. I take care of my children and I built myself a house,” she says, before adding: “As a woman, I feel this cooperative, where we save five points of gold, will help me to rise easily.”

Aisha

As a miner at Kayonza mine site, Aisha, 36, owns a pit, but also trades in ore. At times, she wears her overalls and head light and goes down the pit to get the ore herself, or sometimes to supervise the workers who normally dig up the ore.

Aisha also owns three gold processing sites at the mine and three cyanidation tanks. The 36-year-old has been doing this work for six years.

Her fortune started in 2018 with an investment of sh1.2m. She used sh650,000 to buy a processing site and the balance to buy some ore. After processing that ore, she recovered over 20grams of gold. Aisha remembers that she took home sh4m from that sale.

This was what opened her into the business. Today, she is a big businesswoman who no longer invests weekly, but quarterly. The process of getting the gold takes three months.

She crushes 120 tipper trucks, which are put in cyanidation tanks and mixed with chemicals worth sh30m and left to process for one month. At the end of the three months, she collects about 600grams of gold.

Aisha can’t speak enough of the things this work has made her achieve! “I built rental houses in Kampala from which I earn sh300,000 a month, a guest house in Kassanda and shops that I also rent out in Kampala,” she adds.

“This job makes me proud to be a woman who works and earns a living,” Aisha says.

She is also a family woman, married to a miner and together they have two children; a 10-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl.

Judith

Judith is a 47-year-old mother of five children: three girls and two boys. Her firstborn boy has joined the university. She first started working at the Kayonza mining site as a trader in 2014. She would sell mining accessories to miners, such as headlamps, to go into the pits, bulbs for lights and cells to power the lamps, among other things.

Judith left for other activities, but in 2021, she returned to the Kayonza mine site. This time she is a moneylender who gives miners short-term loans to support the mining value chain process.

Most of her borrowers are those looking for money to buy ore or process gold. Judith loans out approximately sh2m in total a week at a 15% interest rate for a month.

This gives her at least sh300,000 in profit at the end of the month. She also runs a shop of phones and their accessories in the nearby town.

Judith says doing this business at the mine has come with many benefits for her.

“I have made friends, some of whom I started with in 2014. I have bought two plots of land: one a half-acre and another a 50/100. I also support my family along with my husband to pay school fees for the children among other things,” she says.

Judith does not see herself quitting her job at the mines except if, in the future, times change for the worst. Asked about how she sees inclusion and women’s involvement, she says women are heavily invested in the mining business.

She adds that aside from going down the pit to mine the ore, all other levels in the value chain offer opportunities for women to take part in and/or own the business.

About artisanal mining

Artisanal mining contributes more than 90% of gold production in Uganda, with more than 7,081kg of gold mined artisanally per year.

This means that the sector employs the highest number of gold miners in the country, with more than 31,000 people working in artisanal gold mining—it’s estimated almost half of these workers are women.

At some mine sites, women are almost 90% of the workforce. The sector is largely informal and mostly operates using rudimentary methods of extracting gold.

Research indicates that while women’s income in the sector still lags behind men, women earn more than three times more from artisanal mining than any other income generating activity.

The Government, together with implementing agencies and civil society is working towards formalising the sector and transitioning towards more responsible gold mining practices, such as through the planetGOLD Uganda project.

The planetGOLD Uganda project is working together with local communities to reduce the use of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining, while improving the health and lives of local mining communities.

The planetGOLD Uganda project is supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

In Uganda, IMPACT is the executing agency, in partnership with Uganda’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the country’s Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines (DGSM).