By: OrePulse

Euro Gold Refinery signed a partnership agreement on August 11 with artisanal miners in northeastern Uganda's Karamoja region, agreeing to help bring their operations into the formal economy as part of a broader government effort to rein in unlicensed gold exports that have cost the country billions of dollars in recent years.

The agreement, finalized with the Kakoka Artisanal Miners Association, which represents small-scale diggers in Abim District, was signed at a ceremony held at Euro Gold's headquarters in Kampala. Also present at the ceremony was Uganda's State Minister for Minerals, Phiona Nyamutoro, whose attendance signaled government backing for efforts to bring the artisanal sector under regulatory oversight.

Under the arrangement, Euro Gold committed to supporting improvements to mining sites, offering guidance to make extraction safer, and helping the association reach buyers through recognized market channels rather than informal ones. The refinery had already helped Kakoka obtain a license to mine artisanally before the agreement was signed, and it plans to invest more in upgrading infrastructure at the group's mining sites going forward.

Kakoka executive director Denis said the partnership would "protect miners from exploitation, improve safety and increase their earnings."

The move comes against a backdrop of large-scale leakage from Uganda's gold trade. A 2024 report from the country's Auditor General found that gold worth $3.014 billion left Uganda during the 2023/24 period without the export permits regulators require, and that exporters had failed to pay Shs68.84 billion in associated levies — the kind of unregulated flow that formalization agreements such as the Kakoka deal are meant to address.

Euro Gold has built a footprint that extends well beyond Karamoja, with operations spanning Busia, Mubende, Buhweju, Kassanda and West Nile in addition to the Karamoja region itself. The company says more than seven in ten of its employees are Ugandan nationals trained as gold refiners.

The refinery began operating in July 2025 and has since positioned itself as a domestic buyer for the state. It was recently awarded a supply contract under Uganda's Domestic Gold Purchase Program, through which the central bank sources gold to build up its reserves. Company director Benard Feni said Euro Gold secured that contract by outcompeting international firms in a bidding process.

By pairing licensing support with infrastructure funding, Euro Gold gains access to output from Kakoka's small-scale sites while giving the association's miners a path to legal status and, potentially, better gold prices.