Egypt is set to develop its first accredited gold refinery. The country’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek al-Mulla confirmed the report and said the project’s goal is to boost country’s mining sector.
The project will be situated in the Marsa Alam area in the Eastern Desert, with development costs reaching $100 million. According to the Minister, the refinery which will serve the region as a whole will help finalize the value chain for gold production by maximizing the local content.
Mining in Egypt
Mulla further explained that the vision for developing the mining sector aims to increase its contribution to the gross domestic product from about half a percent now to five percent within the next two decades. It will also provide a large number of job opportunities and maximize mining activities by issuing more than two hundred exploration licenses annually.
Egypt has a history of gold-mining stretching back to the pharaohs but now has only one commercial gold mine in operation, Centamin’s Sukari, in the eastern desert region. Sukari contributes up to $900 million a year to the Egyptian economy.
The country in general is home to a wealth of mineral resources including gold, copper, silver, zinc, platinum and a number of other precious and base metals. These resources all lie beneath Egypt’s Eastern desert and the Sinai Peninsula, both part of a geological setting known as the Arabian-Nubian shield. With an estimated 6.7 million ounces of gold, 48 million tons of tantalite (fourth largest reserves in the world), and 50 million tons of coal, Egypt has the potential to be one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world.
