**2. History of gold mining in Egypt**

The history of gold mining in Egypt can be divided into two main times: ancient time and modern time.

#### **2.1 History of ancient gold mining**

The production and mining activities of gold deposits have been carried out from the Eastern Desert of Egypt since ancient times, more than 240 gold deposits and occurrences are spread over the whole area covered by the basement rocks of the Precambrian age.

In most mines, the ancient Egyptians extracted gold from quartz veins of various dimensions in open pits and underground workings. Gold production in Egypt seems to have started as early as the predynastic times (about 4000 BC) and continued in different periods up to the sixth century when the gold mines lost their importance [29–35]. Mond and Winkler published a preliminary report in the season 1937–1938; they noted that the historical time of gold production was started with the accumulation of the nugget gold from the grounds of some wadis in the middle of 5000 BC, which dated by the evidence in production sites of by the "Earliest Hunters" [36].

Harrell, 1992, submitted an article about the Turin papyrus map one of the oldest maps and the oldest map that illustrates the topography and geology of Wadi Hammamat in the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt (**Figure 3**). However,

#### **Figure 3.**

*The Turin papyrus map illustrates the topography, geology and gold working at Wadi Hammamat during the reign of Ramesses IV (1151–1145 B.C.) [37].*

it shows gold-working settlements during the ancient time at Bir Umm Fawakhir and "bekhen-stone" quarry regions. He noted that the map was drawn by the chief administrative officer ("Scribe of the Tomb" Amennakhte, son of Ipuy) of the village of Deir El-Medina during the reign of Ramesses IV (1151–1145 BC) to record the king's bekhen-stone quarrying expedition to Wadi Hammamat late in the third year of his reign [37]. Generally, the gold production periods in Egypt can be classified into eight periods: Pre-and Early Dynastic times (~3500–2700 BC), Old and Middle Kingdom (2700–2160 and 2119–1794 BC, respectively), New Kingdom times to the Third Intermediate Period (1550–1070 BC), Ptolemaic (Greek) times (~300–30 BC), Kingdoms of Kushitic times (800–400 BC and to 100 AD), Roman and Byzantine Period times (~30 BC–641 AD), Early Arab Period (~990–1350 AD), and modern mining time. Each period includes certain techniques and equipment [26, 34–39].

### **2.2 Modern gold mining history**

In the nineteenth century, Egyptian gold attracted increasing attention, and at the beginning of the present century, most of the gold deposits were rediscovered and worked. However, by the end of 1918, gold mining practically stopped [29, 40]. The period between 1932 and 1958 represents a new stage of gold exploration in Egypt, during which several deposits were examined and the major ones, such as Sukari, Um Ud, Hangaliya, Um Rus, Barramiya, El Sid, Um Garaiyat, and others, were put under exploitation. From 1902 to 1958, the amount of pure gold recovered in Egypt

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

was about 7 tons [1, 40]. The last stage in the history of gold mining is the prospecting work that was carried out at Atud deposits in 1953–1954 [41] and 1963–1964 [42]. In 1967, the gold deposits of Semna, Atalla, El Sid, Um Rus, Barramiya, Atud, Sukari, Um Ud, Hangaliya, Kurdeman, Hamish, Um Garaiyat, and others were examined by [43]. Gold deposits and occurrences in Egypt have been reviewed in many publications, some data on the gold deposits were presented in the reports of the Mining Guidance, 1935–1958, reports of Mines and Quarries Department 1906–1960, reports of the Egyptian Mining and prospecting Co., 1955–1962 and Hunting Ltd., 1967. There are many different views concerning the stages of gold development and the relations of gold mineralization with various magmatic complexes. In the period from 1983 to 1989 a new stage in the history of gold mining when the work was carried out at many gold mines in the Eastern Desert by Minex Company. The Geological Survey of Egypt played an important role in the prospecting work done by Minex Company and gave the most accurate and complete data on many gold mines, for example, Abu Marrawat, El Barramiya, HI Fawkhir, and Semena.

In 1990, the Pharaonic Company begins to prospect gold in Egypt depending on modern theories and using more accurate techniques for analysis, depending on data collected by Minex. Nowadays, Cryst International Company seeks gold in the Eastern Desert depending on modern theories. Cryst International Company is interested in gold associated with pyrite in many locations, especially in the Hammata area. In 1995, many companies invested in gold exploration in Egypt (i.e., Centamin, Aton Resources Inc. (formerly Alexander Nubia), Thani Dubai, Mica Star, SMW,

#### **Figure 4.**

*(a) Map shows the historical regions of gold in the Eastern Desert according to the earliest known ancient periods working [40], and (b) concession of the international and Egyptian companies in 2020 (after Arab Nubian group https://www.linkedin.com/company/5013242/admin/).*

**Figure 5.** *Location map of gold deposits and occurrences in Eastern Desert, Egypt [44, 45].*

Matz Holding, and others). Although all these exploration companies targeted well-known occurrences of gold mineralization in the Central and Southern Eastern Desert, only the Sukari gold mine, in the southern part of the CED, has been successfully developed and mined by the Centamin Company. The Sukari deposit is the only producing mine in Egypt, and now it is operated as a shear between the Egyptian Government and Centamin plc. It consists of a large-scale open pit and a high-grade underground mine. The total mineral reserves were reported at 7.25 Moz and the total


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




**Table 1.**

*Locations of gold deposits and occurrences in Eastern Desert, Egypt.*

resources at 11 Moz with a lifetime of 15 years [38–41]. The gold production started from the open pit mine in 2010 and underground started from 2011 to nowadays. The random mining or illegal gold rushers phenomena (they are called Dahaba) have been widely distributed along the whole Eastern Desert. Even though they represented some advantages in gold exploration on different scales but they display enormous harmful impacts by destroying the old mine and having a great environmental impact; at the first, they used a metal detector in exploration, but now they developed their techniques by using crushers, panning, and grinding; in addition, they used mercury and even cyanide to extract and refractory gold. In the Southern Eastern Desert, Shalateen Mineral Resources Company (SMRC), a governmental company is working to control these phenomena by giving licenses to the rushers to explore legally. In 2018, new recommendations for policies were announced by the Egyptian government to encourage global investment in mining. In August 2019, the law of mineral resources was modified and published in January 2020. In 2020, a big international bid-round No (1) for gold exploration and associated minerals was launched to open the minerals sector to foreign investment in the mining industry. At the end of 2020, EMRA announced that 11 international and Egyptian companies )Hammash Misr, Aton Resources, Thani Dubai, SMW Gold, AKH Gold, B2Gold, Barrick Gold, Centamin, Ebdaa Gold, Lotus Gold Corporation, Medaf, North Africa Mining, Nubian Mining, Red Sea Resources, and Shalateen Mineral Resources) win 82 gold exploration areas in Egypt (**Figure 4**). More than 195 gold deposits and occurrences are situated in the Eastern Desert of Egypt since ancient times until modern days (**Figure 5** and **Table 1**).
