Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla announced the commencement of trials of  commercial production of gold from the Iqat site in southern Egypt, the ministry said in a statement.

The Iqat site comes as a culmination of the ambitious plan that was drawn up to start production early in light of the advantages the site enjoys. Its reserves are estimated at about 1.2 million ounces of gold, and the extraction rate is 95%, and it is considered one of the highest extraction rates.

During an inspection of the stages of work and production at the Iqat site, El Molla explained that the site is a pure Egyptian investment in the field of gold exploration and exploitation through the Egyptian Shalateen Company, which is witnessing a successful partnership and fruitful cooperation with the Egyptian private sector.

El Molla stated that Iqat Gold Mining Company was formed between Shalatin, the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA), and the Wealth and Resources Mining Company, who are in charge of work in the detection area, then, work began to establish highly efficient facilities and infrastructure and to operate it through a group of Egyptian youth with skills and experience within a system that includes with them some specialized international experts.

The Minister inspected the progress of the works and the progress of the gold production process, starting with the drilling operations and transporting the rocks by lorry from Mount Iqat to the crushing unit, grinding them and placing them in the extraction basins, in preparation for the process of smelting, extracting gold, and producing ingots, and the infrastructure that has been established to start production from the discovery and the various stages of work.