Mineral potential of Eritrea

Mineral potential of EritreaEritrea’s infrastructure is centered on a well developedcommunicaons network linking the capital city Asmara tothe regions of the country, including the two main sea portsof Massawa and Assab, and to the neighbouring countries.Asmara and Massawa have internaonal airports, whichalso serve internal flights. Inevitably, the ravages of warhave le their mark on the infrastructure, and the reconstruconof the prime facilies has been a high priority.Telecommunicaon facilies have also been renovated anddeveloped, and mobile phones are now a common site inthe major towns.The Department of MinesThe Ministry of Energy and Mines is the authorisedLicensing Agency and is responsible for the administraon,regulaonand coordinaon of all typesof mining operaons in Eritrea. The Department ofMines within the Ministry encompasses, amongstother funcons, the Geological Survey and theMines Administraon Division, and is also itself ac-vely engaged in exploraon and mapping acvies.Even though there are several maps producedon different scales from various sources, therehave been only two geological maps, at a scale of1:250,000, compiled unl recently, when the EritreanGeological Survey prepared a 1:1,000,000 scalemap.The Eritrean mining sector has shown rapid developmentover the past few years since the Ministryof Energy and Mines started issuing licenses in 1997.Since then, several exploraon companies havebeen involved in assessing and exploring the mineralpotenal of the country. In the successive years addionallicenses have been issued on the first-comefirst-servedprinciple. The Department of Mineshas also been developing a naonal minerals database.The Ministry has a responsibility to provide preliminaryinformaon to exploraon companies interestedin conducng detailed invesgaons in Eritrea,and to make a contribuon towards enriching thegeological database of the country. As part of itsroune works, the Department of Mines throughthe Mines Administraon Division issues licenses toarsanal miners, and controls and supervises exploraonand mining acvies so that they are in linewith the direcves of the Ministry and are environmentallycompliant. In addion, the Department ofMines, through its research wing – the GeologicalSurvey – has been working, together with variousforeign governmental aid agencies and internaonalorganizaons, to carry out geological mapping andmineral exploraon.Highlights of 2007-2008The years 2007 and 2008 were high mes in themineral sector. In the past two years the major highlightswere:- In 2007 Eritrean Naonal Mining Corporaon(ENAMCO) was established. This corporaon wasestablished with a major objecve of exercising theGovernment’s free and purchased equity in mining.It is an independent body from the Ministry ofEnergy and Mines and its establishment enables theMinistry to concentrate on regulang acvies.- Establishement of Bisha Mining Share Company.This share company was formed in 2007 betweenNevsun (60%) and ENAMCO owns 40% of the totalshare.- The first Mining Agreement between the Governmentand Bisha Mining Sh. Co. was signed in 2007.This is the first of its type and involved many processesincluding negoaon. Following the signing,a mining permit was issued to the share company.- Another important event in 2007 was the transferof exploraon license from Sub-Sahara Resourcesto Sunridge Gold Corp. In the last few yearsSub-Sahara and Sunridgegold were working as jointpartners in the Asmara property that include threelicense areas (Debarwa, Medrizien and Adi Nefas).Upon the agreement between the two companiesthe transfer of the exploraon rights of the Asmaraproperty from Sub-Sahara to Sunridge was approvedby the Government of Eritrea at the end of 2007.4