Bwana Mulenga is a person of extraordinary popularity in the presidential republic of Uganda. Everybody knows his name there, which comes as no surprise, for he is an owner of a few telecommunications corporations at southwest of the country and in South Sudan. He is also a principal at Saint Augustine University and Yoweri Museveni’s friend (president of Uganda). On top of that, he was also a fighter against Alice Lakwena’s religious separatists as a part of National Resistance Army, and today he is a person, who approves local politicians.
If King Caesar Augustus Mulenga decided to visit some village from Kigezi and Ankola subregions, it would most likely end up with a celebration in his honor. However, it was a business matter that brought his majesty to St. Petersburg Mining University. He wanted to gain much-needed experience, as there is no minerals processing department at the leading University of Uganda.
King Mulenga has told «Forpost» about the importance of mining industry for Uganda’s development and about the forthcoming billions of dollars of future investments.
Background
«Uganda has gone through a lot of challenges. Until the 60’s as you know Africa was colonized by the West. In particularly Uganda was colonized by Britain. And we were very lucky that during that era Russia supported Africa to come out of colonization. And many Africans including Ugandans came to Russia to study and later transfer their knowledge. We have many engineers who studied in different universities in Russia. So, during that time there was lots of fighting and most of the industries stopped operating including mining. After colonial period Africans started managing the economy. Somehow different parties also couldn’t agree, and the wars continued. So, Uganda had gone through various wars in 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. Only in 1986 Uganda got stable leadership and started building the economy».
Oil
«Only in 1986 Uganda got stable leadership and started building the economy. Of recent, like 10 years ago Uganda discovered oil. We have a lot of oil deposits and now we have been in the process of issuing contracts to exploit this oil. Some of the contracts have been issued to Total, which is a French company, and CNOOC that is a Chinese company. Unfortunately, there was a Russian bid about to go through, but for some reason that I don’t understand they pulled out. But we hope that Russian companies would also come and participate in the mineral and oil sector of Uganda. Because of this discovery of oil in Uganda and other African states: Kenya, Tanzania; gas in Rwanda, oil in Congo, South Sudan - these have brought the mining sector up, awakened the mining sector. We have one of the biggest mines in Africa, maybe the 4th, the copper mine, Kilembe copper mine. In the 60’s our economy depended on it by 60 percent. Now we’re looking at reviving it».
Mineral resources
«We have other minerals like gold, we have diamond, titanite, we have a lot of iron ore. Personally, where I come from there is a lot of iron ore. I was excited to see a big [sample] of iron ore [showcased] here in the museum. So, we have a lot of minerals and there is renewed interest in the sector by different companies to come and exploit it. Only our government is emphasizing addition of value. And that is also the second reason why we are here. To learn and get knowledge how all those natural resources we have could be processed in Africa and value added so we get the maximum opportunity out of them».
Investments
«We are looking in three years to have an investment in Uganda for about 20 billion dollars in the oil sector and the minerals. We are looking forward to building a pipeline of over 1450 kilometers [leading] from one place called Hoim in Uganda to Zanzibar where the oil will be shipped to all the markets in the world. We are also looking at building our own refinery, the first one in our country, that will be producing about 60 000 barrels a day. This will help us to produce heavy diesel which is very important especially for processing iron ore and other minerals. So, there is a renewed activity in general in Africa because Africa is now shaking off the time of wars and coming to the time of production».
