Unleashing mining potential - Economy - Al-Ahram Weekly

Al-Ahram Weekly

4 days ago

Egypt's mining sector has recently been in the limelight with a set of new exploration agreements and production increases, not only for gold, which is the most actively looked for mineral, but also phosphates and iron and other lesser-known minerals to the public like white sand.
The Egypt Mining Forum 2025, which took place last week, saw agreements finalised for more gold exploration with AngloGold Ashanti, which bought Centamin and is now the operator of the Sukari Gold Mine, as well as Canada's Barrick Mining Corporation.
'Egypt is open to all forms of investment, with a particular focus on empowering Egyptian, regional, and international investors, and we stand ready to allocate additional areas for exploration and prospecting across all mineral types, reaffirming our unwavering commitment to expanding growth opportunities within the mining sector,' Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi said.
A $658 million phosphoric acid complex is currently under construction in the New Valley governorate due to a contract between a consortium of Egyptian companies and two Chinese entities. Phosphoric acid is used in many industries, the most important of which is fertilisers. The complex has an estimated production capacity of 900,000 tons annually.
'This clearly demonstrates the strong desire of international companies to expand their investments in the Egyptian mining sector, which serves as proof of major international companies' confidence in Egypt's investment climate, reflecting the success of the state's policy in attracting foreign investments,' Badawi said.
Egypt recorded $446 million in revenues from mineral wealth development in the 2025 year to date, marking a 131 per cent increase compared to the previous year, Badawi told the forum attendees.
The increased interest follows government efforts to streamline the sector by amending the mining law and introducing investment-friendly changes in the formula of sharing costs and profits with explorers.
The most recent move was parliament's approval of a bill changing the status of the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA) to that of an economic authority with its own independent budget.
The draft law establishes a regulatory framework modeled after the structure of Egypt's General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), with the goal of simplifying procedures and improving flexibility so that mineral resources can be developed more efficiently and competitively.
'The swift alignment of the mining legislation with international best practice demonstrates unprecedented institutional collaboration. The unified commitment across Government, Parliament, and industry to defined timelines has enabled us to enact critical reforms that will drive sustainable growth in Egypt's mining sector,' said Hoda Mansour, Managing Director and Vice Chair of Sukari Gold Mines, representing AngloGold Ashanti during the forum.
MP Mohamed Ismail, who submitted the demand to change the EMRA to an independent economic entity, noted that as a public service authority it is under fragmented oversight, reporting financially to the ministries of planning and finance and technically to the Ministry of Petroleum.
This administrative and organisational distortion, he told the House of Representatives, has constrained the authority's performance and led to the mining sector contributing less than one per cent to the country's GDP.
EMRA, now known as the Mineral Resources and Mining Industries Authority, will keep 65 per cent of its annual profits and transfer the remaining 35 per cent to the state treasury.
Ismail expected the change to mark a turning point for the industry and to increase government revenues from LE2 billion to LE12 billion annually within seven years, raise the sector's GDP share to six per cent in five years, and boost exports from $1.5 billion to $7 billion within a decade.
A closer look at the sector reveals that gold still attracts the lion's share of investment. A Fitch Solutions report issued early last year pointed out that in March 2021, the former minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Tarek Al-Molla, had announced that Egypt aimed to become a world-class mining hub, raising its mining exports to $10 billion by 2040, up from $1.6 in 2021.
'While we do not expect export growth to be as strong as these aims, gold production and exports have strong potential. The government is liberalising the gold sector in an attempt to encourage foreign investment, and we expect gold prices to remain high in the coming five years, which will encourage exploration and mine development,' the report noted.
According to a government document cited by the news outlet Al-Arabiya, Egypt's gold sector has witnessed remarkable growth, with gold and precious stone exports surging by 74 per cent to reach $2.85 billion in the first 11 months of 2024, up from $1.64 billion during the same period in 2023.
While steel makes a lot of news locally owing to the effect of price changes on the construction sector, little attention is given to the volume of production.
Egypt, states the Fitch report, is emerging to be Africa's largest steel producer and second-largest producer in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after Iran.
Egypt's steel production continued to grow consistently throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, whereas most other countries experienced at least temporary contractions. Crude steel output reached 9.8 million tons in 2022, the second-largest in MENA after Iran.
'We forecast average annual growth of 1.5 per cent over the next decade as the government supports the industry to reduce reliance on imported steel,' Fitch said.
During the period between 2019 and 2024, phosphate production saw the highest rate of growth, according to a report prepared by the Egypt Oil and Gas Group, with an annual average of eight million metric tons (mmt) compared to 3.92 mmt in 2019-2020.
This reflects intensified mining activity, strategic investment, and strong export demand supporting Egypt's phosphate industry, it said.
The Abu Tartur Plateau in the Western Desert is one of the largest and most promising deposits of phosphates, known for high-grade ore and substantial reserves.
A detailed study titled 'Phosphate Mining in Egypt: Geology and Sustainable Development' by Mahmoud Zanaty, a geologist at US firm Haliburton, confirms that Egypt possesses four per cent of global phosphate deposits, totalling 2.78 billion tons, and produces six million tons annually, which accounts for three per cent of global output.
Phosphates have diverse applications across several industries, creating vast investment opportunities.
Industry observers say that in the light of the projected 25 per cent expansion in cultivated land over the next six years, there will be a higher demand for phosphate-based agricultural products, resulting in a vast domestic market.
However, high production costs, especially in the Abu Tartour Plateau, which contains approximately one billion metric tons of reserves but with high impurities, represent a challenge for the sector. There is also fierce competition, especially from neighbouring African and Arab countries, such as Morocco, which has the world's largest phosphate reserves, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.
Other minerals highlighted by Egypt's Oil and Gas report showed declining or inconsistent trajectories during the five-year period. Iron production, which averaged 0.05 mmt, dropped sharply by 84 per cent and ceased entirely after 2020-21.
'Egypt's iron production declined sharply due to outdated machinery, heavy financial losses exceeding LE9 billion, inconsistent energy and raw material supplies, and a government decision to liquidate the Egyptian Iron and Steel Company,' the Fitch report said.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 24 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Follow us on:
Facebook
Instagram
Whatsapp
Short link: