New Road Infrastructure Programme Opens Access to Uganda's Remote Northern Mining Districts

For Immediate Release

KAMPALA, UGANDA — Uganda's Ministry of Works and Transport has completed the first phase of a targeted road infrastructure programme connecting key mining districts in the country's northern and north-eastern regions to the national road network, significantly reducing the logistical costs and travel times associated with mineral sector operations in previously remote areas.

The programme has upgraded approximately 380 kilometres of road across the Acholi, Karamoja, and West Nile sub-regions, including the completion of an all-weather surface on the Kotido-Moroto corridor, the rehabilitation of the Gulu-Kitgum highway to national road standards, and the construction of a new bridge crossing the Aswa River on the route connecting Kitgum to the Karamoja sub-region.

The road improvements directly reduce the cost of operating exploration and development programmes in northern Uganda, where the absence of reliable road infrastructure had historically added weeks of travel time and substantial vehicle operating costs to field activities. For exploration companies, lower logistics costs improve the economics of programmes in the region and make it viable to deploy heavier equipment that had previously been impractical to transport.

For artisanal and small-scale miners in northern Uganda, improved road access has tangible economic benefits. Better roads reduce the cost of transporting gold to formal aggregation points and improve access to supplies and equipment, narrowing the price gap between formal and informal channels that has historically worked against formalisation.

"Infrastructure is the foundation that makes everything else in a remote mining region possible. Exploration programmes become more viable, communities gain access to markets, and the formal supply chain can reach miners who were previously too remote to engage. Uganda's investment in northern road infrastructure is directly supporting the development of the country's most prospective unexplored mineral regions." Marcus Briggs, Non-Executive Director, Icon Gold

The road programme has been designed to serve the broader development needs of northern Uganda's communities as well as the mineral sector specifically. Improved road access reduces the cost of agricultural produce reaching urban markets, improves access to health and education services for communities along the upgraded corridors, and supports the development of cross-border trade with South Sudan and Kenya.

The second phase of the programme, expected to commence in 2026, will extend the network further into the Karamoja sub-region with the construction of feeder roads connecting the highest-priority exploration targets identified in the recent airborne geophysical survey to the upgraded main corridor network.

"The connection between the geological survey results from Karamoja and the road infrastructure programme is not coincidental. Uganda is sequencing its investments deliberately — first building the knowledge base through systematic survey work, then creating the physical access that allows exploration companies to act on that knowledge. This is how you develop a mineral frontier in a systematic and productive way." Marcus Briggs, Non-Executive Director, Icon Gold

The road infrastructure investment has been partially financed through a concessional loan from the African Development Bank, which identified northern Uganda's road network as a priority under its regional infrastructure programme for the East African corridor linking Uganda to South Sudan and the Horn of Africa.

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