RE: Egypt meeting demands of mining sec12 Dec 2018 16:13
The current law allows two companies to work in the same mine, with each extracting a different kind of metal. However, Hanafi said this was a major hurdle that caused problems for investors.
He said that the fact that the state enters into joint ventures with companies in projects allows for the Central Auditing Agency to interfere in the activities of the mine, affecting management efficiency.
Hanafi supported the suggestion that investors should pay high fees to the state after the recovery of their investment, but he said that investments were not injected in one batch, making it very difficult to prove their size.
Another solution was that investors should pay 30 per cent of their profits to the Ministry of Finance, as other mines do around the globe.
Sami Al-Rajhi, the founder of Centamin Corporation, said that any mining project was based on long years of accumulated experience in different parts of the world. Some ideas were the secrets of the profession, which was why other countries give investors the right to the land chosen.
In Egypt, it could take a month before the notification of acceptance, opening the door to corruption, Al-Rajhi lamented.
He said that in other countries there was no limit to the areas that investors could obtain, and there were no limitations on the period in which mining could take place as long as the investors fulfilled their legal obligations.
Kamal believes the whole sector needs an upgrade and not just the law. He said that since the Geological Survey Authority had become affiliated to the Mineral Resources Authority its role as a research and technical body that works on drawing up maps and outlining Egyptian metal and mineral wealth had diminished, leading to information scarcity regarding the mining potential of the country.
He suggested that the GSA be reinstated as an independent research body and encouraged the establishment of value-added industries around extracted minerals.
There should be an integrated master plan for the mining industries for 20 years, Kamal added, with this allowing Egypt's mineral needs to be estimated and whether they needed to be produced locally or procured from abroad.
For example, he said, instead of exporting crude phosphates at prices ranging from $80 to $120 per ton, Egypt could purify and wash them, adding 25 per cent to the price.
Kamal said there should be a vision to develop the sector and to complete geological studies and modern maps of Egypt's metallurgical and mineral wealth. The Egyptian deserts should be studied geo-physically and geo-chemically, he said, and the results of such studies fed into databases and made available to investors.
https://www.masress.com/en/ahramonline/319795
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