By Jeff Mbanga
Nearly two months after it agreed to acquire a gold project in Mubende district, Australian junior mining firm EMetals Limited has today released its first financial assessment of its new potential asset, revealing that there is probably more gold in the area than it had earlier anticipated.
EMetals, which signed a binding agreement with Sifang Mineral Resources Limited, a Ugandan-incorporated company, in July 2024 to acquire the Mubende gold project, estimates that the gold project has a market capitalisation of $3.4 million.
This valuation is not too high to attract heavy investment capital in the project, but it is enough to trigger the attention of industry players about the future prospects of a project when the drilling programme kicks off.
The Australian company says about 60 to 80 artisanal miners are scrapping for gold at the Bukuya prospect over a 600-meter-wide radius, and yet the strike zone for the mineral is far bigger.
“Soil sampling has confirmed gold mineralisation extends beyond current artisanal workings and has defined an anomalous zone across a strike of approximately 1,200 metres, which remains open along strike in both directions,” the company announced in a statement released today.
Artisanal mining is commonplace in Uganda
EMetals says some of the samples the company recently took from its preliminary field activities at its new gold project for testing to SGS Mwanza in Tanzania confirmed the presence of a high-grade mineral zone.
The samples were collected from 20 metres to 50 metres below surface.
To build on its findings, EMetals says there is a likelihood of acquiring at least four additional neighbouring exploration licenses to add to its EL00379, which runs over 202 square kilometers in Mubende district.
The company is also encouraged by the fact that the Bukuya prospect is just 5.5 kilometers away from the Kamalenge Gold project, developed by AUC Mining Ltd, which has in the past announced some impressive results.
The Australian company says it plans to start drilling the area by December this year.
EMetals will depend on the wide network of contacts that Allan Agumya, who is part of their local management team, comes with. Agumya will be tasked to swiftly pursue the applications of other neighbouring exploration licenses to the Bukuya prospect.
Agumya is the chairman of the Uganda Miners Forum, a lobby group for artisanal miners.
A significant discovery is hoped can change the direction of the gold industry in not only Mubende but the entire country, where artisanal mining dominates.
Uganda only has one licensed large gold mining project – the Wagagai project the East.
