-- Posted Wednesday, 26 October 2011 | | Disqus

Opec Governor for the UAE Ali Al Yabhouni this morning opened the Mena Mining Congress 2011 in Dubai with a lot of interest focused on the growing amount of gold and silver exploration and production in the region, regardless of the problems posed in some countries by the Arab Spring.

From the Egyptian Government came assurances that the situation was now ‘very, very safe for business’ and that ‘past signatures still stand on all contracts’.

Pharaoh’s gold

Gold production at Centamin Egypt (pictured) is back to planned levels with 50,539 ounces mined in Q3. Officials said the old pharaohic mines contained seven million ounced of gold with 25 million in the surrounding area.

Moroccan Mining Minister Dr Armina Benkhadra’s address was delivered on her behalf and rated the top four mining resources of Morocco as phosphates, copper, gold and silver, For silver Morocco is the No1 producer in Africa.

Eurostone, a privately held concern that is a key sponsor of the congress this year, said it was diversifying out of iron ore by exploring for gold in five countries and was targeting a resource of 25 million ounces within three years. Drilling services group Boart Longyear noted that its biggest recent increase in business was gold exploration in Africa.

From Saudi Arabia Ma’aden CEO Dr Hady Dabbagh gave an excellent presentation on his diversified group which aims to be the third pillar of the Saudi economy behind oil and petrochemicals. Besides a $10.8 billion integrated aluminium project and $5.6 billion phosphate mine, Ma’aden has five gold mines producing 150,000 ounces per annum with 11 million ounces of resource.

Two new gold mines are under construction in Saudi Arabia including a 500-kilometre water pipeline accounting for 25 per cent of the project’s cost. However, with average recovery costs of $400 per ounce from the Arabian Shield that hardly matters.

Arabian Shield

The Arabian Shield is a geological formation rich in gold and silver as well as gold, copper, iron ore, zinc, uranium and rare earths. It is comparable to geology found in Canada and extends under the Red Sea into Egypt where the Centamin mine is located that once served the pharoahs.

Only 10 per cent of the Arabian Shield has been licensed for electromagnetic surveys in Saudi Arabia so Dr Dabbagh expressed optimism that a great deal was left to be found under the desert sands.

With precious metal prices hitting record highs this year perhaps a focus on these metals was to be expected at the Mena Mining Congress, even many of the exhibition hall stalls were for gold and silver exploration companies.

-- Posted Wednesday, 26 October 2011 | Digg This Article

About Peter Cooper:
Oxford University educated financial journalist Peter Cooper found himself made redundant by Emap plc in London in the mid-1990s and decided to rebuild his career in Dubai as launch editor of the pioneering magazine Gulf Business. He returned briefly to London in 1999 to complete his first book, a history of the Bovis construction group.

Then in 2000 he went back to Dubai to become an Internet entrepreneur, just as the dot-com market crashed. But he stumbled across the opportunity to become a partner in www.ameinfo.com, which later became the Middle East's leading English language business news website.

Over the course of the next seven years he had a ringside seat as editor-in-chief writing about the remarkable transformation of Dubai into a global business and financial hub city. At the same time www.ameinfo.com prospered and was sold in 2006 to Emap plc for $27 million, completing the career circle back to where it began a decade earlier.

He remains a lively commentator and columnist as a freelance journalist based in Dubai and travels extensively each summer with his wife Svetlana. His financial blog www.arabianmoney.net is attracting increasing attention with its focus on investment in gold and silver as a means of prospering during a time of great consumer price inflation and asset price deflation.

Order my book online from this link

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