**1. Introduction**

The Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) is one of the largest and best-recorded outcrops of Neoproterozoic Juvenile rocks on the Earth (950–450 Ma), the ANS developed during the collision between East and West Gondwana with the closure of the Mozambique Ocean (Pacific-sized Ocean) at the north part of the East African orogen (EAO) (**Figure 1a** and **b**). The East African Orogen is a part of the Pan-African orogenic cycle that extends from the north by ANS to the south of the Mozambique belt. The Pan-African Orogeny was a period of major crustal accretion and a part of the Neoproterozoic Gondwana supercontinent; it affected Gondwana and several regions in Laurasia [2, 5–9]. The Egyptian Nubian Shield (ENS), the basement rocks of Egypt comprise covers 100,000 km2 (about 10% of the total area of the country), exposed mainly in the southern Sinai Peninsula, the Eastern Desert parallel to the eastern flank of the Red Sea coast, and the Western Desert at Gabal Oweinat. Commonly, the Eastern Desert are divided into three distinct lithotectonic

#### **Figure 1.**

*(a) Showing the Gondwanaland supercontinent after [1], (b) Showing locations, terranes, and sutures of Arabian–Nubian shield after [1–4].*

domains as specific: Northern Eastern Desert (NED), Central Eastern Desert (CED), and the Southern Eastern Desert (SED) (**Figure 2a**) [11–15]. The basement complex in the Eastern Desert is composed of a heterogeneous rock assemblage; it can be classified into two major units (**Figure 2b**). The lower tectonostratigraphic unit (infrastructural unit) of the old continental margin comprises medium to high-grade metamorphic gneisses and migmatites, psammitic schists (e.g., Meatiq, Migif-Hafafit, Sibai, and El-Shalul domes) [16–19]. The upper tectonostratigraphic unit (suprastructural unit) [13, 18–21], which is represented by ophiolites, magmatic-arc related island-arc volcanic, and volcaniclastic

*Perspective Chapter: History and Classification of Gold Mineralization in Egypt DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110042*

**Figure 2.** *(a) Distribution of Neoproterozoic basement rocks in Egypt [10], (b) Geologic map of the Eastern Desert and Sinai [1].*

intruded by Syn to late tectonic calc-alkaline and alkaline granites, metagabbro-diorite complexes, Dokhan volcanics, and molasse sediments intruded by post tectonic granitic intrusions and dike [10, 13, 22–28].
