EGYPT – The Egyptian General Authority for Mineral Resources has signed 10 contracts with four English, Canadian and Egyptian companies to exploit 17 new sectors for gold research and exploration with total investments of about US$11.2 million.
The Ministry of Petroleum said in a statement that the contracts included signing four contracts with AKH Gold, a company affiliated to Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris, with a total investment of about US$4.1 million to search for gold in nine sectors in the Eastern Desert.
It also included the signing of three contracts with the Canadian Red Sea Resources Company, one of the international companies working in the field of gold exploration and exploitation in five sectors, with a total investment of about US$5.5 million.
Moreover, there are two contracts for North Africa Mining Company to search in two sectors with investments of about US$1 million, and a contract with Al-Abbadi Mining and Contracting Company to search in one sector, with a total investment of about US$636,000.
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, witnessed the signing of the 10 contracts.
For his part, El-Molla stressed that the success achieved by the global auction to search for and exploit gold, of which the results of the first phase of which were announced at the end of last November, give strong impetus to continue developing the Egyptian mining sector and achieving the desired results, as it is one of the strategic sectors that are being worked on.
According to an integrated methodology, to be one of the main sources of national income.
He said that the victory of the company, affiliated to Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris, to search for gold is a good sign for other investors, especially since his group companies have extensive experience in mining activities in many countries of the world.
Naguib Sawiris said that the new mining law and its executive regulations gave strong impetus and an incentive for international and Egyptian companies working in the mining activity to apply for the global auction of gold that was put forward, and Egypt is working according to the systems in force internationally in the mining sector, which will contribute to increasing the benefit to the state and investors.
He emphasized that Egypt possesses large mineral resources that will be an important tributary of the national economy, praising the efforts of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in developing the mining sector.
Five contracts for gold exploration and exploration were previously signed within the winning bid with total investments estimated at US$13 million in 13 sectors with the Canadian Lotus Gold Company, the Egyptian Medaf Company for Mining and Industry, and the Egyptian Ebdaa Forjold Company.
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