Experts estimated the quantity in thousands of tons...the discovery of a priceless mountain of gold
Experts estimated the quantity in thousands of tons...the discovery of a priceless mountain of gold in an Arab country
The Sukari mine stands out as one of the most important mining features in Egypt, which indicates the rich geological nature of the country, with its lands containing rich resources.
Especially as it is part of the Arab-Nubian Shield, which includes a number of countries, and deposits of yellow metal were also found in the mine since the time of the ancient Egyptians.
Egypt seeks to develop the mining sector to increase its contribution to the country’s GDP to 5% over the next two decades, compared to 0.5% at the present time. The country has recently offered many prospecting opportunities for mining materials, and gold has taken the largest share of them.
Although Sukari Gold Mine is Egypt's first mine in the modern era; There are traces in several areas of excavation indicating that it was used in ancient times during the era of the ancient Egyptians.
In the area where the mine is located, maps dating back to the Pharaonic era were found indicating that Jabal al-Sukari contained gold mines that were used in the past.
The beginning of the Sukari story The Sukari mine comes as one of the joint ventures between the Mineral Resources Authority and the Australian Centamin Company. It is the product of an agreement signed in 1994 between the Egyptian government and the Australian Pharaonic Gold Mining Company - currently Centamin - to search for and exploit gold and minerals.
After the discovery of the Al-Sukari mine, it was decided to establish the Al-Sukari Gold Mining Company in May 2005, with a concession area of 160 square kilometers, to exploit the mine.
And Al-Sukari Company, with a joint capital between the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority - affiliated to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Egypt - and Centamin, whose headquarters are in Australia.
It is noteworthy that the Pharaonic Company for Gold Mines was the first operator of the Sukari mine before it was acquired by Centamin.
Huge and easy to crush mine “Al-Sukari” is described as a huge gold mine that comes among the largest mines in the world. It is located in the area of Jabal Al-Sukari, from which the mine got its name.
According to exploratory estimates of diabetes; The mine is characterized by the spread of gold throughout its length; Which makes it among the largest mines in Africa and the world.
Jabal al-Sukari is located in the Nuba Desert, which is part of the Eastern Desert, located 30 kilometers south of Marsa Alam in the Red Sea Governorate in Egypt.
The area of the Sukari mine, located in the southernmost part of the Geratin Plateaus, is about 160 square kilometers.
Data from the Red Sea Governorate indicate that the gold deposit in the Sukkari mine is fragile and easy to crack, and it interferes with granular compounds of tonalite crystals - which are igneous rocks - with volcanic grains.
The gold deposit in the Sukari mine is divided into 4 areas; They are: Pharaohs, Ra'a, Amun and Al-Ghazali.
gold extraction method
The data of the Red Sea Governorate shows that the mine has a smelting plant that produces an average of 200,000 ounces annually, and it applies the traditional method in the mining process to separate gold.
The process of extracting gold in al-Sukari goes through crushing, and then collecting the raw material resulting from the crushing, then grinding the raw material, and flotation of the raw material to separate the precious metals.
After the flotation of the raw material, comes the process of filtering and grinding, separating the precious metals by using a cyanide solution, drying using activated carbon, and then separating the carbon from the metals, and separating the gold and precious metals.
Finally, the residue is preserved because it contains many gold deposits and a solution of cyanide and activated carbon is added, after which the gold residue from the previous process is separated.
It is noteworthy that the “cyanide solution” is a white toxic substance that comes in the form of solid granules or crystals; It produces hydrogen cyanide gas and is used in the extraction of gold and silver.
The Sukari Company pumps water from the Red Sea to the mine for raw material flotation, replacement and sedimentation operations at follow-up stations.
Figures about the Sukari mine
Since 2009, Centamin has started producing the yellow metal from diabetes; Its production has so far reached about 5 million ounces of gold, according to the latest monitoring by Centamin in its quarterly report for the first quarter of 2022, which was reviewed by the Energy Research Unit.
The latest review of diabetes gold reserves, announced in late 2021, showed the highest growth in 10 years; The mine's reserves amounted to about 5.8 million ounces of gold.
And based on the recent revision of the reserve; The life of the mine is expected to extend for another 12 years, according to Centamin data.
During the first quarter of this year 2022 - that is, in the period from January to the end of last March - gold production in the Sukari mine declined to 93.1 thousand ounces of gold, compared to 107.5 thousand ounces during the last quarter of last year (October/October). December/December.
When compared on an annual basis; The mine's production was also lower; It amounted to about 104.04 thousand ounces of gold during the first quarter of 2021.
Despite the rise in gold prices; Centamin sales of extracted gold fell to 92.55 thousand ounces during the first three months of 2022, compared to 106.5 thousand ounces during the same quarter of 2021.
As a result of the decrease in the quantity sold, the revenues of Centamin, which operates the sugar mine, which is the largest asset it owns, decreased to $ 174.6 million during the period from January to the end of last March, compared to $ 189.9 million during the same quarter last year.
In the whole of 2021, diabetes production declined to 415.37 thousand ounces, compared to 452,000 ounces during the year 2020.
It is expected that the mine’s production this year will reach between 430 and 460 thousand ounces of gold, before production will rise to between 450 and 475,000 ounces during the next year 2023.
Centamin expects gold production at the Sukari mine to range between 450,000 and 500,000 ounces during 2024, according to the company's forecasts issued in December 2021.
What about Egypt's stake in the mine According to the agreement signed between Egypt and Centamin, the Egyptian government is entitled to receive 50% of the profits from the Sukari mine.
Egypt is also entitled to a royalty of up to 3% of the net sales revenue of the Sukari mine, according to Centamin's annual report.
With the decline in the quantities of ounces of diabetes gold, royalties that Egypt collects from Centamin, during the first quarter of this year, decreased to 5.5 million dollars, compared to 5.7 million dollars during the same quarter last year.
Sukari Mine An excavator loads a dump truck at the Sukari Mine - Archive Egypt's share of profits from sales of the Sukari gold mine fell during the first three months of this year to $8.5 million, compared to $21.7 million during the same three months of last year.
In 2021, Egypt's share of the profits from sales of the Sukari gold mine fell to 75.2 million dollars, compared to 174.27 million dollars in 2020.
The royalties that Egypt collects from Centamin as a result of sales of the Sukari gold mine decreased to $21.67 million, compared to $24 million in 2020.
The 10 largest gold mines in the world The Red Sea Governorate, in which the mine is located, confirms that Al-Sukari is a candidate to rank among the list of the 10 largest gold mines in the world.
Centamin expects the Sukari mine to produce around 500,000 ounces of gold by 2024, a level it exceeded in 2016 and 2017 before production followed a downward curve until last year.
The mines of the US state of Nevada came to the fore in the list of the 10 largest gold mines in the world, with a production volume of 3.31 million ounces, or about 2.9% of global production.
The Moronto Mine in Uzbekistan with a production volume of 2.99 million ounces of gold, 2.6% of global production, was followed by the Grasberg Mine in Indonesia with a production volume of 1.37 million ounces, or about 1.2% of global production.
Fourth, the Olympia mine in Russia came with a production volume of 1.18 million ounces, or 1% of global production, and in fifth place came the Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic, with a production volume of 814,000 ounces, or 0.7% of global production.
At the sixth level came the Kibali mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a production volume of 812 thousand ounces of gold, or 0.7% of global production, and seventh came Kadia mine in Australia, with a production volume of 764.89 thousand ounces, or 0.7% of global production.
At the eighth level, the Lihir mine located in Papua New Guinea, with a production volume of 737.08 thousand ounces, equivalent to 0.6% of global production, was followed by the Malartec mine in Canada with a production volume of 714.78 thousand ounces of gold, equivalent to 0.6% of global production.
In the tenth place came the Boddington mine in Australia, with a production volume of 696,000 ounces of gold, or 0.6% of global production.
This means that the Sukari mine is close to the top 10 list in terms of the 10 largest gold mines around the world, according to the Energy Research Unit.
Other mines on the way The Sukari mine is currently the most popular commercial mine in Egypt in view of its huge production, but there is also the Hammash Gold Mine, an ancient Pharaonic mine located in the Eastern Desert and managed by the Hammash Egypt Company for Gold Mines, in addition to the Iqat Gold Mine. ) is newly discovered and is still under development.
In June 2020, Egypt succeeded in achieving a commercial gold discovery in the Iqat area located in the eastern desert of Egypt, with investments estimated at more than one billion dollars over the next 10 years, located in the concession area of Shalateen Mineral Resources Company, which makes it a purely Egyptian discovery.
And Shalateen Mining Company, located in its concession to the Iqat mine, whose capital is distributed between the Mineral Resources Authority (35%), the National Service Projects Organization (34%), the National Investment Bank (24%), and the Egyptian Company for Mineral Resources (7%).
According to the data of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum; The reserve of the Iqat mine is estimated at more than one million ounces of gold, with an extraction rate of 95% - one of the highest extraction rates - with an average gold concentration of 1.5 grams per ton.
The first general assembly of Iqat Gold Mines Company, which is responsible for the development of Iqat's commercial discovery, was held in November 2021.
This comes as Egypt has launched international bids to search for minerals, including gold, since 2020, within the framework of modernizing the mining sector and aiming to raise the sector’s contribution to 5% of GDP.
In 2020, 11 companies won a bid offered by Egypt in 82 sectors covering an area of 14,000 square kilometers in the Eastern Desert, with a minimum investment of $60 million.
Sukari and Renewable Energy Sukari Mine In May 2021, Centamin decided to construct a 36 MW solar power plant in Sukari Mine, and a 7.5 MW battery energy storage system with investments of $37 million, and it is expected to start operating at the end of this year.
Centamin contracted with the German company Juwi to design, supply and integrate the Sukkari solar power plant and batteries with the existing diesel power plant, and it also contracted with Giza Systems to install the Sukkari plant.
According to Centamin; The Sukkari Solar Power Plant will be the world's largest off-grid hybrid solar power project.
The company expects the Sukari solar plant to reduce diesel fuel consumption at the Sukari mine by 22 million liters annually.
Centamin asserts that the Sukkari solar plant will reduce fuel costs between $9 million and $13 million annually, as well as provide protection from exposure to fuel price fluctuations.
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