Egypt

Eastern Desert - renewed gold production

Monday Morning

This may appear to be slightly off-topic, but it is of interest in terms of the potential damage to the Eastern Desert that the mining might inflict on the archaeology. I've written on my Eastern Desert website both about gold exploitation in Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman periods and about the damage that existing quarrying has inflicted on the rock art. Just something to bear in mind.

Egypt, which stopped gold production in 1958, will produce eight tons of the metal from mines in its Eastern Desert in 2009, said Hussein Hammouda, chairman of the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority.

Egypt, whose people once considered gold to be the skin of the gods, is revisiting ancient gold deposits, some unworked for 2,000 years.
One of the mines which has started production has a reserve of 13 million ounces of gold, Hammouda said, adding, “Once this mine becomes fully operational, it won’t be only one of the biggest in Africa, but one of the biggest worldwide”.

Egypt’s gold production stopped in 1958 because the volume mined was considered too small to be profitable. The country produced 7.4 tons from 1902 to 1958.

“We’re planning to produce eight tons of gold in 2009, which is more than what Egypt produced in a century”, Hammouda explained.

- Gold Mining In Ancient Egypt
Mining Weekly (Jade Davenport) Via the Petrie Museum Unofficial Facebook page. The history of gold is as old as that of man. There is no doubt that it was one of the first metals known to primitive man, as it exists in nature in an elemental state....

- Online: Bir Umm Fawakhir
Oriental Institute (1993 season) Oriental Institute (1996-1997 season) Bir Umm Fawakhir Survey Project 1993: A Byzantine Gold-Mining Town in Egypt. C. Meyer, L.A. Heidorn, W.E. Kaegi, and T. Wilfong. The Oriental Institute continued its survey of the...

- Exhibition: Gold
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/gold/There's an exhibition at the moment at the American Museum of Natural History (New York) which looks at gold, including its geological context, how it is extracted and its use in different ancient socieities. Having...

- Egyptian Map Leads To Gold
http://www.ameinfo.com/85772.html "Centamin Egypt will produce its first gold bar next year, Egyptian Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister, Sameh Fahmy, told Bloomberg. The company was encouraged to explore for gold at the Sukari mining lease site...

- Pharonic Gold Mine Areas Yield New Possibilities
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html12/o300625k.htm The Minister of Oil, Sameh Fahmi has announced that three gold mines have been discovered in al-Ela1qi Valley, South of Eastern desert. "An Australian company discovered the three sites and said that the...

Egypt