National Mining Announces Gold Discovery in Ethiopia

National Mining Corporation announced the discovery of gold deposits in Southern Ethiopia estimated at 10 metric tons a year, nearly double of the current national output.

The Okote site has shown to have more than 550 tons of gold with 73 tons expected to be ready for extraction in 2 years said Melaku Beza, Chief Executive Officer of National Mining.

The company is planning to invest 150 million US dollars to initiate the first phase of the production he said.

There is a lot of potential in the area and the revenue earned from the sire could be about 4 billion US dollars in 20 years according to Melaku.

Mining development will be play a significant role in earning Ethiopia foreign currency in the future said Meaku,

The Ethiopian government will warn about 1 billion US dollars from tax and royalty payments from the 73 tons.

Gold exports from Ethiopia have increased by 75% to 11 tons in the last financial year generating 485.3 million US dollars in revenue.

Earnings from gold totaled 258.8 million US dollars in the first two quarters of this budget year showing a significant increase from the 179.2 million US dollars earned in the same period last year according to data provided by the Ministry of Trade.

Source: Bloomberg