When currency drops and the economy stops, gold is the financial sanctuary that many can reliably turn to, especially when markets are recovering from the reverberations of the Russia-Ukraine war. Long proven as both stable and profitable, gold reserves have been abundant in Egypt since ancient times, but Egypt’s economic rebirth within the modern world offers a new place for this vital, valuable, and rare metal.
It could, in fact, be a lifesaver from an economic perspective since navigating the country out of the high tides of challenging economic conditions requires creating new lucrative incentives for investors and experts point to gold as the main tool to save assets from losing any significant value. Reviews indicate that gold is one of the key attractions for investors for the foreseeable future, especially when the world economy is plagued with inflation. “As inflation continues to run high, this might be an excellent time to increase allocations to gold,” said Frank Trotter, president at Battle Bank in a news article by CBS News titled “Why You Should Invest in Gold”. He added, “Over time, analysts have shown that gold has been a good hedge against inflation.”
Adopting strategies to effectively boost sources of income, gold exploration and production has been one of the priorities of the Egyptian government to boost production. The outcome of these efforts is that production for Egyptian gold has already been proven impressive with a recent report indicating that the Sukari gold mine, one of the country’s main mines produced 5.2 million ounces since production began until the end of February 2023. This entails that the gold market in Egypt managed to raise estimated revenues of $7.5 billion.
Though these revenues may be impressive, this is just the beginning with the Egyptian government which seeks to invest in the long-term potential of the gold industry as its economic reforms begin to take shape. Now, Egyptian government seeks to take things to the next level with The Gold Hub, a project that seeks to support the gold value chain in Egypt through the establishment of an accredited gold refinery within the country’s Eastern Desert.
Considered by many in the upper echelons of government to make Egypt the key investment location in the Middle East, the Gold Hub will consist of an industrial area, a vocational area, and a residential area, having a total area of 200,000 m2. The industrial area will be fully equipped with a refinery with an annual capacity of 50-100 tons. There is an additional laboratory facility for all the relevant refinery and exploration activities. In seeking to build human cadres as well the vocational area will also include a vocational training institute that will ensure that the employees are working with internationally accepted standards of professionalism and diligence. This hub will also have a residential area that will generously provide quality living spaces and other facilities that employees may need. Hence, the Gold Hub is a complete package that creates jobs, enhances human cadres and ultimately attracts investments by offering the global market a unique and stable asset.
The Gold Hub is within the framework of an innovative strategy of the mining resources sector development program to push the industry’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) up with a goal of 5% by the year 2030.
This project is not only catering to the interests of investors but the benefits are also expected to trickle down in resolving unemployment since The Gold Hub has the potential to offer many direct and indirect job opportunities. In addition, it creates a variety of lucrative opportunities for companies that work within the mining exploration field by providing them with all the essentials and necessities in mining services investments. The Gold Hub is one of the core pillars of a comprehensive strategy to boost foreign direct investments (FDI).
All the ingredients for Egypt to become the main attraction of gold investors around the world are there. The secret behind making this a success is by providing the right environments for investors to build confidence in the market while providing the facilities and infrastructure to ensure that gold reserves in Egypt are easily accessible by mining companies. The government has already taken huge leaps already with the Shalateen Mineral Resources Company (SMRC) recently announcing a bid round in many other areas including Fatiri, Umm Ud, Atud, Barramiya, and Hamata. This is in addition to many other bid rounds that have been announced in the past. Though the country may be enduring rough tides, there’s no doubt that there will be long-term benefits for these efforts.
