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Egyptian company strikes gold in Eastern Desert

Egypt has sought to attract gold mining investment recently.

People walk around the rocks in the natural reserve area of Wadi Al-Hitan, or the "Valley of the Whales", at the desert of Al Fayoum Governorate, southwest of Cairo, Egypt, January 14, 2016.  Wadi Al-Hitan holds an impressive collection of fossils and bones, some of which date back over 40 million years. The entire site resembles an open-air museum with marked trails that visitors can follow to admire the fossils and rock formations that extend over a vast area. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany - GF20000094784
People walk around the rocks in the natural reserve area of Wadi al-Hitan, or the Valley of the Whales, in the Western Desert in Egypt's Al Fayoum governorate southwest of Cairo, Jan. 14, 2016. A gold deposit has recently been found in Egypt's Eastern Desert. — REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

An Egyptian company has discovered a large gold deposit in the country’s Eastern Desert, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources announced today.

The ministry said the gold discovered in the Iqat region is estimated to be more than 62,500 pounds (28,000 kilograms, or a million ounces). The mining company Shalateen made the discovery. Shalateen and the government will form a joint venture to extract the gold, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources said in a press release. That would be about $1.8 billion at today's prices; mining.com said the government expected the cost of developing the site to be $1 billion over 10 years.

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