Kampala — Countless opportunities were identified to bring about greater developmental benefits from mineral resources in Africa, and they exist along value chains through new and innovative linkages.

This was the message that was conveyed to policy makers, African and global firms, experts and civil society organizations attending the Uganda Mineral Wealth Conference 2017. John Sloan of the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) highlighted that rather than the business-as-usual focus on mineral rent maximization, Africa Mining Vision (AMV) is the only African-owned framework promoting minerals as a tool for economic transformation. He noted, "Numerous opportunities for mineral value addition occur both upstream and downstream along mineral value chains."

The 2017 conference under the theme of "Minerals--knocking on the door to cause economic transformation in Uganda" touches on AMV's core element of sustainable development. It was noted during the discussions that AMDC is the implementing agent of the AMV and works with emerging mineral producers such as Uganda in promoting a holistic approach to economic transformation based on natural resources. In Uganda, industrial minerals hold significant potential for the country's mineral sector in which artisanal and small-scale mining plays a particularly large role. Furthermore, addressing governance of the mineral sector is vital both to facilitate linkages between the mineral and industrial sectors, and to also address the issue of illicit financial flows, which particularly plague the extractives sectors.

The two-day Conference was opened and attended by several Ministers of State of the Republic of Uganda, who stressed the importance of continuing the progress that Uganda has made thus far and challenged participants to think further on how to capture more value from the country's minerals.

The conference ran from 4 to 5 October 2017 in Kampala, Uganda.