Egypt reveals plans to establish industrial cities in Eastern Desert, Sinai

CAIRO – 17 January 2022: Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tariq el-Molla revealed that the country is planning to establish some industrial cities in the Eastern Desert and Sinai in order to achieve added value to the mineral resources, during the International Mining Conference in Saudi Arabia.

He explained that the plan includes implementing a number of complexes for the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers to maximize the economic return of phosphate ore, in addition to developing training centers dedicated to increasing the skills of human cadres, geologists and workers as well.

During 2021, the mineral wealth sector gained a number of achievements, as 25 contracts were signed with foreign and Egyptian companies (7 international companies and 4 Egyptian companies) to search for gold in 75 sectors in the Eastern Desert with the Egyptian General Authority for Mineral Resources.

This occurred after the results of the first round of the gold auction was announced. The total investments are estimated at about $57 million. A second round of bidding was submitted, offers were received, and evaluation is underway for awarding to the winning companies.

A new global bid was launched to search for mineral ores and associated minerals (iron, phosphate, copper, white sand, feldspar, potassium salts and lead, zinc, kaolin, and Lake Nasser clay) per updated evaluation criteria that include the extent to which the investor achieves added value through the manufacturing and transformational processes of extracted minerals instead of exporting them in their raw form. The auction witnessed a great demand from investors.

Also, about 469,000 ounces of gold and silver were sold from the Sukari mine during 2021, and the total value of their sales amounted to about 748 million dollars, and the value of the royalty due (3%) is about 22.4 million dollars.

Egypt is developing a number of mining cities through a clear vision that coincides with what the Egyptian state is currently doing in infrastructure development, which is one of the important axes in the mining sector development strategy implemented by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources to maximize the added value of many valuable mineral ores.