The government of Egypt has announced that for the first time, cooperation is taking place in order to set environmental standards for the exploration and extraction of gold in the country.
According to Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad, there are more than 30 national projects addressing climate change, she said, and all aim to transfer the value of the environment to other ministries.
Fouad explained that some of these projects are related to tourism, and certain tracks have been modified in some projects to become more environmentally efficient, such as in waste management and retraining.
Environment issues
The Environment Minister pointed out that the language of dialogue with people on environment issues has been dry, and said that the state aims to overcome this though various projects in the interest of citizens while altering the language of dialogue used in the issue over the past three years. The ministry also aims to further involve citizens in environmental issues, she said adding that the rate of response to people and their complaints exceeded 96 percent.
Gold production in Egypt exists in three sites across the Eastern Desert: Sukari Mountain, Hamash and Wadi al-Alaqi. The Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA) says the precious metal is present in 120 ancient sites, from old mines to other areas all in the Eastern Desert. Nevertheless, Egypt has few gold mining activities, with only one gold producing mine currently under operation: the Centamin- owned Sukari mine.
