Oil Ministry reaches framework mining agreement with key gold players

Centamin + Barrick Gold just agreed terms with the OilMin: The Oil Ministry has reached an agreement with the LSE-listed gold miner Centamin and Canada’s Barrick Gold on the terms for several exploration concessions awarded in 2021, the Oil Ministry and Centamin said last week.

The MMEA: T he Model of Minerals Exploitation Agreement (MMEA) lays out the commercial, fiscal, and lega l arrangements for any commercial discoveries made at the seven exploration concessions in the Eastern Desert given to the two companies. Toronto-listed Barrick Gold was awarded four contracts and Centamin received three.

In detail: Under the agreement, the ministry will award 30-year licenses for the concessions under which the companies will pay a 5% royalty on revenues and 15% of net income to the government . The agreement doesn’t apply to Centamin’s Sukari mine which operates under a separate concession agreement.

This isn’t official yet: The House of Representatives is required to approve the agreement before it comes into effect, which Centamin expects to happen later this year.

Neither firm is a stranger to Egypt: Centamin operates the country’s largest gold mine — the Sukari mine in the Eastern Desert — and Barrick entered the country in 2021 after winning USD 8.8 mn-worth of exploration contracts to search for and mine gold in the Eastern Desert.

The news got international coverage:Reuters.