Egypt’s cabinet reviews plan of establishing city for gold industry

CAIRO- 4 February 2021: In terms of carrying out President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s directives to establish a city for gold industry in Egypt, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli held a meeting on Thursday with a number of ministers to discuss the general plan of establishing the city.

 

On January 16, 2021, President Sisi directed the government to establish a full-fledged city for gold industry and trade in Egypt in accordance with cutting-edge technologies in this field to reflect the ancient Egyptian civilization in this fine craft industry.

 

The President directed the government to provide industry and production requirements to the city to be a hub for high-end exhibitions, training workers to refine their capabilities. He asked them to take into account the logistical aspects in terms of choosing the city’s location to take advantage of the new road and axes network to offer easy access to and from the city and to receive visitors.

 

During the cabinet meeting on Thursday, Madbouli, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Dr. Ali El-Moselhy, and other officials reviewed the possible locations for the city in terms of the logistic aspects for every location, besides a number of similar projects in different parts of the world.

 

According to the general plan, the city would include units of delivery and storage, factories, workshops, gold shops, gold-craft school, in addition to supportive services such as establishing a branch of jewelry stamping and scales, a museum, an educational park for children, a dining area, and a logistics center.

 

Ranked 6th among Arab peers in gold holdings with 77.4 tonnes, Egypt is a land rich in gold as it is situated on the Arabian-Nubian Shield; and rich gold deposits are found throughout the region.

 

At present, gold production is concentrated in three sites across Egypt’s Eastern Desert: Sukari Mountain, Hamash and Wadi al-Alaqi, while 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.

 

Additional reporting by Nourhan Magdi