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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.

The National Mining Corporation plc announced that it discovered gold and base metal reserves in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian mineral discoveries were made in Oromia and Tigray regional states.

The mining corporation estimates that the 550,000 kg gold reserve at Dawa Okote, in Oromia Regional State is worth more than 4 billion US dollars according to Melaku Beza General Manager of National Mining.

The gold reserves discovered at Werri, Tigray Regional State have estimated gold reserves of 18,000 kg expected to be worth 792 million US dollars explained Melaku.

The National Oil Corporation (NOC), in collaboration with Q8Aviation, has expanded its aviation activities in Ethiopia by launching jet fuel services at Gambella and Assosa airports.

The new operations at Gambella and Assosa airports are an important step in NOC’s long term plans to expand its aviation business according to Shisema Shewaneka, Chief Operation Officer of NOC.

The National Bank of Ethiopia concluded contract with Afcor PLC. local vendor for the supply of IBM equipments and database solutions for worthing USD one million. Six months ago, NBE has contracted the Indian company Polaris to replace its old CORE Banking system for USD 3.4 million.

Twelve companies bought bid documents, and three has submitted offers for the international tender floated in December 2012. Other than Afcor; United System Integrators (USI), which supplies Hewlett Packard (HP) hardware, and Boston Consulting, supplier of Oracle, also participated.

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has drafted a directive which sets priorities and establishes the “first come, first served” rule which should be observed by banks when allotting foreign currency, according to The Reporter.