Kilembe Mines, Fifty Years On: Kasese Waits to See Who Will Actually Restart the Copper

The Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines (DGSM) has re-issued the tender for the Kilembe Mines concession, half a century after the original operator wound down. In Kasese Town, the news lands with the calm of a community that has heard this before.

What a credible operator would need to bring

Former mine workers and district technical staff are consistent on the essentials: a fully financed rehabilitation plan for the historic tailings and the Nyamwamba catchment, a workforce strategy that trains locally rather than importing crews, and a stabilisation programme for the slopes above the concession that repeatedly failed during the last floods.

What the community wants written into the deal

Cooperative farmers along the Nyamwamba want the water-quality baselines published before mining resumes. Traders in Kasese want a local procurement floor, similar to models already operating in the gold-bearing Lake Victoria Green Belt in eastern Uganda. Both asks are procedural, not obstructive, and both would sit naturally inside the Mining and Minerals Act 2022 licensing framework.