Busitema University, Chinese gold company sign deal to improve skills

TORORO-Busitema University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Wagagai Mining [U] Limited in a bid to improve the quality of the university’s students doing engineering-related courses.

The collaboration between the academic institution and the gold mining company will see students undergo internships at the company in the areas of training, research and technical support.

The Vice Chancellor of the university Prof. Paul Waako welcomed the arrangement on Wednesday, saying that it has come at a time when government is targeting strengthening the standard of courses at the university.

He called upon other private companies to partner with Busitema University in the respective disciplines.

“The location of our campuses across Eastern Uganda, geographically made it the biggest in the region,” he said.

Waako told the visiting team that the university had over 60 training programmes at all levels of study aligned to vision 2040.

He said the university has been involved in carrying out research and recently was ranked as one of the best public universities in the country.

According to him, the university gained recognition because of offering programmes that support critical areas of the sector.

‘’Am glad that you are here to join hands with Busitema university so that we are able to pursue the University’s vision of supporting rural communities in the country. Given its location in the rural area, it carries the mandate of transforming rural communities and it’s the reason it is referred to as the most visionary university in the country,” he said.

Waako said that recently they had engagements with the Confucius Institute at Makerere University to start teaching Chinese language at the Faculty of Science and Education, with the aim of accelerating interaction between people of Uganda and China.

He said Busitema University has a lot of space for expansion and can do a lot of things with Wagagai as long as they are related to education since the institution’s goal is to build national capacity in various critical areas of development.

Tan Jiuchang, General Manager, Wagagai Mining (U) Limited said gold exploration in Busia area was done in 2019 and the project officially started in 2020.

“It was started with a vision of the Ugandan and Chinese cooperation and friendship
and Chinese development initiative. The construction of the plant had been going on for two years and production would commence in October 2023. Our goal is to produce ore of 1.5 million tonnes of gold annually,” he said.

Jiuchang added that “We hope this Memorandum of Understanding will pave the way for young people from all backgrounds to study and apply their talents in the mining industry. We acknowledge the importance of creating partnerships with education institutions in our host countries as key to developing local talent and integration into our business.”

He said the mine will be the gold hub of Uganda and that the company is equipped with technologies and equipment for the whole chain of production that will help students.

He explained that Wagagai has very advanced equipment and technologies for exploration and other processes.

“The MoU will assist in the planning ahead of the industry’s human resources requirements and cement our partner network activities,’’ Jiuchang said.

“After construction, the mine will not only be known as a gold hub but a centre destination for industrial tourism too. It would be a beautiful mine with advanced technology, equipment and other leading technologies,” he said.

He said there would be zero water pollution and damage to the environment.

“We are recycling plant system which runs through the mine. The company had also designed mechanisms to ensure safety of the employees and surrounding community,” said Jiuchang.

https://thecooperator.news/busia-gold-miners-asked-to-cooperate/

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