Uganda Claims Exploration Surveys Discovered 31 Million Metric Tons of Gold – While gold is commonly thought to be a scarce commodity, Uganda said on Wednesday that fresh exploration studies show the region has around 31 million metric tons of gold ore waiting to be mined.
Furthermore, a representative for Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development stated that the country has an estimated 320,158 tonnes of refined gold.
The price of one ounce of pure gold has increased by 48 percent against the US dollar during the last five years. This year, the spot market value of an ounce of gold reached an all-time high of $2,060 per unit.
An ounce of gold costs $1,840 currently, and the spot market price has increased by 0.48 percent in the last 30 days. Meanwhile, reports from Uganda indicate that the country has discovered a significant amount of gold ore and is seeking miners and investors.
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Solomon Muyita, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, told Reuters on Wednesday that the country has discovered 31 million tonnes of ore after performing a series of exploration surveys across the land.
According to the spokesman, 320,158 tonnes of refined gold may be extracted right away, and Wagagai Mining, a Chinese business, is already intending to mine in the area. Wagagai received its gold production license in March 2022 and signed a 21-year mining contract with officials from Uganda’s eastern region’s Busia district.
The majority of the ore was discovered in Karamoja, Busia District, as well as the central and western districts, according to Muyita. Wagagai is located in Mawero Parish, Butebo sub-county, and is expected to have 12.5 metric tons of mineable refined gold.
China’s Wagagai Mining to Start Production Soon
Wagagai will start production this year, according to Muyita, and the business has already invested $200 million in the refinery’s construction. Gold’s scarcity now arises from the difficulties of extracting the ore; while Muyita estimates there are 320,158 metric tons of gold, only 2,500 to 3,000 metric tons are mined each year.
Furthermore, South Africa is the world’s greatest producer, but gold is also mined in the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, and China. Surprising ore deposits found all over the world put the precious metal’s scarcity claim to the test.
For example, an unexpected discovery of around 40 million troy ounces of gold in Russia’s Siberian area at the end of October 2020 was previously reported. Massive gold resources were discovered in August 2020 in a historical region of Central Europe called Silesia, which is located in Poland.
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Uganda Claims Exploration Surveys Discovered 31 Million Metric Tons of Gold – In March 2021, Ahmad Algohbary, a Yemeni freelance journalist living in Sana’a, reported on a massive mountain of gold unearthed in the Congo. While there were no verifiable estimates of how much gold was discovered in the Congo mountain of gold, it was reported that artisan miners were smuggling the gold.
According to a United Nations (UN) report, gold smuggling is quite common in Africa, with production in the Congo region “continuing to be systematically underreported.” This means that, while statistics show that approximately 2,500 to 3,000 metric tons of gold are extracted each year, a large amount of unreported gold may be entering the market.
