KAMPALA — The amendments to the Mining and Minerals Act that received presidential assent this month are, on the face of it, technical. Read carefully, they reset the commercial terms of every medium- and large-scale mining licence issued from this point forward, and they introduce a category of agreement — the community development agreement, or CDA — that did not exist in Ugandan law before.
The headline change is the royalty schedule. Royalties on gold rise from 5 to 7 per cent of gross value at the mine gate. Royalties on copper and cobalt are unchanged at 5 and 7 per cent respectively. A new 4 per cent royalty applies to industrial minerals previously taxed at flat per-tonne rates, a change that will affect aggregates, limestone and dimension stone operations most directly.
Equally consequential, if less widely reported, is the new local content framework. Holders of medium- and large-scale licences must now submit, as a condition of award, a five-year procurement plan that progressively shifts inputs and services to Ugandan-registered suppliers. The plan is enforceable: the Directorate may suspend a licence for material non-compliance, subject to a written warning and a six-month cure period.
The CDA is the most genuinely new instrument in the package. Every medium- and large-scale operator must now negotiate a binding agreement with the affected community — defined, in most cases, as the sub-counties whose boundaries fall within ten kilometres of the licence area — covering employment, training, infrastructure, and a community development fund equivalent to no less than 0.3 per cent of gross revenue. The agreement is registered with the Ministry and is publicly available.
What the amendments do not do is also worth noting. They do not change the framework for artisanal and small-scale mining, which continues to operate under the lighter-touch regime introduced in 2022. They do not introduce a sovereign wealth fund, though a Ministry of Finance working group is understood to be drafting a separate Bill on that question. And they do not address the long-standing tension between mineral rights and surface land rights, which remains governed by a patchwork of older statutes and customary practice.
Industry reaction has been measured. The Uganda Chamber of Mines, in a brief statement, said the new royalty rates were “at the higher end of what is sustainable” but welcomed the predictability of a single, codified schedule. Several civil society groups have praised the CDA mechanism while cautioning that its effectiveness will depend entirely on enforcement.
For operators already on site, the practical task is now to read the transition provisions carefully. Existing licences continue under their original terms until renewal; at renewal, the new schedule applies in full. For anyone preparing a fresh application, the rules of the game have changed in ways that will be felt long before the first ore is hauled.
