Newmont Mining to participate in bidding for gold in Egypt

CAIRO – 5 March 2020: Vice President of the Sustainability and External Relations at Newmont Mining Corporation Nicholas Cotts affirmed his company's desire to participate in the upcoming bidding for gold in Egypt.

This came during a discussion session held by the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla, with Cotts, according to a statement of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum.

The company has the largest proven gold reserves in the world and is one of the largest companies owning mines in the world

The two sides reviewed areas proposed for the tender, as well as the new financial system to motivate investors to pump more investments into the Egyptian mining sector.

Newmont Corporation is the world's largest gold mining company. It’s based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and USA.

Incorporated in 1921, it has ownership of gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Ghana, Argentina, Peru, and Suriname. In addition to gold, Newmont mines copper, silver, zinc and lead.

Molla announced earlier that Egypt will launch an international exploration tender for gold and other minerals such as copper and silver from 15 March to 15 July.

According to Molla, investors will be given the opportunity to bid on 320 blocks over an area of about 56,000 square kilometres in the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea, clarifying that each block will cover an area of 170 square kilometres, and the block will be administered under a tax and royalty scheme.

Earlier, the government made amendments to the mining law in a bid to attract investors to the mining sectors.

Mineral Resources Act amendments include setting up a new authority in charge of licensing mines and quarries, taking the power to issue and control licenses away from governorates. They would also lift a previous 16,000 sqm area limit, allowing the authority to issue licenses to areas of unlimited size. Licenses could also be renewed for more than one term.

Moreover, there will be separate contracts and agreements for exploration and extraction, and companies will have to pay a minimum royalty of 5 percentof annual production, with a 20 percent cap being set.

“Mining firms will have to pay 6 percent of a mine’s annual production to the home governorate. Governorates can recommend amending this 'rent' but a final say can only come from the prime minister. Under current legislation, governorates had the power to dictate the payout every four years,” according to the amendments.