First gold bar mined at Egypt’s Iqat enters circulation
The first gold bar from ore extracted at Egypt’s Iqat mine was released into circulation on Tuesday.
A state-owned company discovered a large gold deposit in Egypt’s Eastern Desert in 2020, now the site of the Iqat mine.
It holds an estimated 1.3 million ounces, or about 36 tonnes, of gold.
Shalateen Mining was formed in 2012. After the discovery at Iqat, it became the third national company working in gold mining and exploration.
The company is co-owned by the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority, the Armed Forces’ National Service Projects Organisation, the National Investment Bank and the Egyptian Company For Mineral Resources.
Nagy Farag, a Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade consultant who specialises in gold mining, told talk show Sallet El Tahrir on Monday night that it was important to intensify gold prospecting missions in Egypt as there were several other “promising” areas that could yield more of the precious metal.
The Iqat mine’s reserve is modest, Mr Farag said, when compared to the El Sukari mine, also located in the Eastern desert, which holds an estimated 15 million ounces of gold.
However, he said, it is a valuable source of income for Egypt.
The start of production in the Iqat desert comes as the country intensifies its efforts to secure more foreign currency to stabilise its ailing economy and currency, which slid further against the dollar on Sunday.
A new international tender for gold exploration in at least five regions of Egypt’s Eastern desert is expected to take place in the coming months as the country looks to expand its gold production, the supply ministry said in July.
Egypt’s 2022 gold exports were worth about $1.5 million, government statistics have shown.