Today, Wednesday, the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced that it has granted licenses to explore for gold and minerals in 8 areas in the Eastern Desert, as part of its efforts to increase investments in the mining sector.
A source in the ministry said that the companies that won the licenses are the Canadian "Lotus" gold holding company, the English "Akh Gold" company, the British "Marine Logistics" company, and the Egyptian "Ink Resources" company.
The Sukari mine in the Eastern Desert is currently the only commercial mine in Egypt.
The mine contributes about $900 million to the Egyptian economy annually.
The state aims to invest one billion dollars in this sector.
Egypt has great mineral wealth, as there are more than 120 gold mines, most of them in the Eastern Desert, in addition to 3,000 quarries, 40% of which are in the Red Sea, 20% in Upper Egypt and 15% on the Gulf of Suez, according to local studies.
Gold touches its lowest level in two weeks
Meanwhile, gold prices fell to their lowest level in two weeks in morning trading on Wednesday, before rising again, at a time when the demand for the precious metal as a safe haven helped offset some of the continuing pressures from the rise in the dollar and US Treasury yields.
The rise of the dollar increases the price of gold for buyers in other currencies, while the rise in bond yields limits the demand for the yellow metal, which does not yield a return.
And gold fell in spot transactions 0.1% to $ 1843.89 an ounce (an ounce) at 07:19 GMT, but it returned to rise again and profit about $ 10 during today’s trading.
Earlier in the session, it fell to $1,829.24 an ounce, its lowest since May 19.
As for other precious metals, silver rose in spot transactions 1.4% to about $ 22 an ounce, after hitting its lowest level since May 19 at $ 21.40 earlier in the session, before recovering somewhat.