The state minister of Mineral Development, Sarah Opendi, has ordered the arrest of two operators of gold mines in Kassanda over illegal gold mining.
This came after Opendi put a stop to all mining activities at a particular site called Kisiita last month but some people defied her directive.
Opendi said she was at the site on March 12, 2020 and she had a meeting with the stakeholders regarding the matter.
"We agreed that this site should be closed and handed over to the Uganda Revenue Authority(URA) until we have agreed with the owner of Kasiita mining site because URA was demanding tax arrears to a tune of Shs 1.2 billion,"she said.
She said she was shocked to find out that one of the groups is carrying out illegal mining of gold supervised by the Mineral Protection Police.
"The officer in charge actually indicated that he allowed them to continue mining defying even my instructions because they had powers of attorney, "she said.
She explained that having the powers of attorney is not a licence to permit someone to continue with the mining and therefore they must stop with immediate effect.
"So for that reason I have ordered the DPC to have these people arrested, have their statements taken and we hope that relevant charges will be preferred against them,"she said.
