Geography

Uganda is a landlocked country located astride the Equator in Eastern Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the southwest by Rwanda, and in the south by Tanzania. It is in the heart of the Great Lakes region, and the southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also shared by Kenya and Tanzania. The nearest coastline from Uganda is at the Port of Mombasa in Kenya.

Geology

Two thirds of Uganda is underlain by Archean and Proterozoic basement rocks. In addition to the Archean Gneissic-Granulite Complex in the north, there are three major Proterozoic belts exposed dominantly in the southern part of the country, the Paleoproterozoic Buganda-Toro System, the Mesoproterozoic Karagwe-Ankolean System and the Neoproterozoic Mozambique Belt. The former comprises dominantly argillaceous rocks and quartzites of varying metamorphic grade that are host to gold and base metal mineralisation as well as colbalt, nickel and coltan minerals. The Karagwe-Ankolean System is lithologically similar but commonly host porphyritic granites; the system is a major host of (alluvial) gold, tin, tungsten, and iron plus coltan, lithium and bismuth. Tertiary to Recent sediments fill parts of the down-faulted Western Rift. Tertiary carbonatites and Cenozoic volcanics related to rift activity occur along the eastern and western borders of the country. The carbonatites ring complexes, of Cretaceous age, are important sources of vermiculite, titanium, vanadium, uranium, thorium and phosphate such as at Tororo and Sukulu.