CAIRO – Egypt's mining sector drew hundreds of-millions of dollars in planned investments this week as companies seek gold and other minerals in a country often seen as one of Africa's most under-explored.  

Several companies awarded exploration licences are getting closer to confirming gold deposits able to support commercial operations, executives told Reuters on the sidelines of the Egypt Mining Forum.

Spurring interest are gold prices that have surged, topping $5 000 an ounce this year for the first time as investors sought safe haven amid geopolitical and trade uncertainty.

Egypt is about six years out from an overhaul of its mining law that scrapped a production-sharing requirement and other rules to attract investors and develop what authorities believe are significant untapped resources. Though to achieve output on a par with other African producers, it will have to tackle illegal mining, bureaucratic delays and other obstacles that still deter investment, they said. 

"At the end of the day, it's all about money. The more money you have available, the more drilling you can carry out," said Vincent Morel, country manager at Akh Gold, a venture backed by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris.

"But you don't want to blow money just for the sake of blowing money."

The company has made promising discoveries in one of its licence areas in the Central Eastern Desert, he said. The area is on the Arabian-Nubian geological shield, a mineral-rich rock formation straddling the Red Sea and running south into Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. 

Exploration is also under way in two other licence areas, although illegal miners have prevented access to parts of the concessions, at times violently, Morel said.

"Security has always been the biggest problem," he said.

GOVERNMENT HAS 2030 TARGET
Gold has been mined in Egypt since the pharaohs, but modern production comes overwhelmingly from the Sukari mine, a large open-pit and underground operation southwest of the Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam.

The mine, operated by South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti since it bought Centamin in 2024, has yielded more than 6.8-million ounces and now produces around 500,000 ounces of gold a year.

Egypt's government wants to raise gold production to 800 000 ounces a year by 2030 and eventually increase mining's contribution to gross domestic product to about 6% from less than 1% now.

Meeting that target depends partly on newer entrants producing more and proving larger deposits than they have so far.

Shalateen Mineral Resources Company, a state-controlled venture partly owned by an economic arm of Egypt's defence ministry, says it produced more than 900 kilograms (about 29,000 ounces) of gold last year. 

Abu Marawat Gold Mines Company aims to start commercial production next year in a concession containing about 150 000 ounces of gold reserves, chairman and managing director Ayman Ibrahim said. It is a joint venture between Egypt's mining authority and Canada's Aton Resources.

The company is continuing exploration and hopes to reach 2-million ounces of reserves, he added.

EXPLORING FOR MORE 
Afaq Mining, a private Egyptian company that partners with Shalateen, has identified a deposit containing about 305 000 ounces of gold in the West Gabal Elba concession in Egypt's southeastern desert, chairman and managing director Mostafa Elbahr said.

It plans to invest about $146-million over the next four to five years in further exploration and an initial production facility, he said. 

"There is potential to add more and more," Elbahr told Reuters. 

Red Sea Resources, a Canadian company set up in 2020, has started drilling in two of its three licence areas, company president Darin Labrenz said.

"Drilling is the most expensive thing that we do, so we want to have that certainty that we're drilling the best targets," he said.

Lotus Gold Corporation, a subsidiary of Canada's Ongwe Minerals Inc., has identified "some good leads" across licence areas covering about 2,000 square kilometres and is planning to ramp up further exploration, managing director Omar Nasser said.

Saudi Gold Refinery Co., a privately held Riyadh-based mining company that submitted bids in the latest licensing round, plans to spend $10-million on exploration over the next two years, chairman Suliman Alothaim told Reuters.

The company expects to invest about $200-million in Egypt by 2030 in total, including on mine development and production facilities, he said.