The Egyptian government will soon issue gold mining tenders for the Eastern Desert region, reported AFP. Several undisclosed international groups had reportedly already expressed interest in bidding for concessions to extract gold in Hurghada and Marsa Alam, on the Red Sea. Large quantities of gold discovered in Egypt’s eastern desert in mid-2001 could potentially make Egypt the world's fourth-largest gold producer.
Eight years ago, Australian mining company Centamin along with its local subsidiary Pharaoh Gold Mines (PGM) was given rights to excavate a 5,000-square-kilometer area the Eastern Desert. Centamin is obliged to bear all extraction costs, but must provide the state with three percent of all revenues and—if it strikes commercially viable gold deposits—50 percent of profits. The company is currently focusing on developing the Sukari goldmine—one of 15 mines that PGM secured in its concession.
US-based Cresset Precious Metals Incorporated is also engaged in gold development and production in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Such endeavors began in 1999, when the Company's wholly owned subsidiary Cresset International entered into an exclusive concession agreement with the government of Egypt and the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority for the exploration and production of gold and associated minerals in various locations in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
