Page 29 - Issue 73
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E L I T E
E L I T E V O L .1 I S S U E . 7 3V O L .1 I S S U E . 7 3
Investing in green mining-
Title
How is Egypt turning its desert into a digital gold mine?
Name- Major- Year
Maryam Ashraf Azzam
There is no doubt that the mining industry is one generate 90% of electricity through renewable
of the most energy-intensive sectors and even an sources by 2050
impact on the environment,
Egypt stands out as a country with enormous As well as the “Benban solar energy project” ,
potential to transform its deserts into a global which is one of the largest projects in the world,
centre for sustainable mining, which will highlight
it can be expanded further to support mining
a clear impact of all sectors and activities of the
operations.
country and its interactions with the rest of the
countries.
And on the echo of all of the above, Egypt faced
many challenges, most notably:
If we look at the natural and economic potential
Water consumption, as mining requires large
of Egypt in terms of mineral wealth, we will find
amounts of water for cooling, which is
that in the first half of 2025 only , the productivity
undoubtedly the problem of clearing warning in
of the “sukkary” mine was 246 thousand ounces
of gold, an increase of 9% from the previous year. advance to approach water scarcity.
Recently, there have been some recent discoveries As well as the availability of infrastructure, ELITE’s Seventh Anniversary (2018-2025)
about the existence of reserves of up to 300,000 Egypt still needs investments in road networks,
ounces of gold in the Afaq region of the Eastern energy and transport to connect remote mines to
Sahara. urban centres.
Egypt now plans to increase its gold production to Thus, if the use of water-saving technologies
6 tons within 5 years, through partnerships with such as closed cooling systems and water
international companies such as “Canada's Barrick recycling is considered, it may contribute to
Gold” and “Anglo Gold Ashanti”. solving some of its problems.
As for renewable energy, Egypt has one of the
looking forward to international partnerships in
largest solar energy potentials in the world,
cooperation with countries such as Sweden and
especially in Western Sahara, which was able to
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