By Agency
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Friday launched Uganda’s first tin refining plant in Ruti, Mbarara City.
The facility is owned by Woodcross Resources, a company which is composed of a mining division focused on the exploration, development and operation of mining licences in Uganda, a commercial-scale tin refinery located in Mbarara and a mineral trading division, purchasing concentrate from audited mining sites across the Great Lakes Region of East Africa.
Tin is used to drive low-current electricity through devices for a small distance due to its versatility and resistance to corrosion and is used in electronic devices like smartphones, Laptops, Batteries, computers, and automotive industries among others.
The factory is East Africa’s third, making Uganda the 15th Tin processing country in the world.
Other Tin producing countries in Africa are DRC, Rwanda, and Nigeria.
During the launch, President Museveni who was in company of the First Daughter Mrs. Natasha Museveni Karugire, re-emphasized his call for value-addition to Uganda’s raw materials like minerals.
He said when minerals are exported unprocessed, Uganda loses a lot of revenue and other benefits that could steer the country’s socio- economic transformation.
The President reiterated the ban on exporting unprocessed minerals and warned that investors who refuse to add value to the minerals will not be allowed to export them.
Woodcross Resources Managing Director, Mr. Omid Ameri was happy to confirm to the President that they managed to fulfil the promise they made to him two years ago that they will set up the tin refinery in Uganda.
