German, Austrian firms eye building sodium cyanide factories: Two European companies have submitted investment proposals to the Oil Ministry to set up sodium cyanide facilities in Egypt worth a combined USD 270 mn, Asharq Business reports, citing two anonymous government sources. The proposals include one from German cyanide producer CyPlus to set up a USD 150 mn factory that would produce 30k tonnes of sodium cyanide per annum, and a separate USD 120 mn factory from an Austrian company, with a similar production capacity to that of CyPlus.

SOUND SMART: Sodium cyanide is the solution commonly used for gold extraction from low-grade ore, and can be used to extract other metals, including copper, zinc, and silver.

In the works since last summer: Oil Minister Tarek El Molla met with the managing director of CyPlus last year to discuss the company’s plan for the factory.

Where the proposals stand: The European companies have seen their proposals approved by the Egyptian Investment Authority, while the state gas firm EGAS has signed off on their requests for natural gas supplies for the factories, one of the sources is quoted as saying. The companies are reportedly looking at setting up their factories either in Alexandria or Ain Sokhna to be close to the main raw production materials needed for the compound and to be well situated to export to mines in the Eastern Desert and overseas.

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