Excitement is beginning to build about the pending drill results from an untested zone on Alexander Nubia’s (CVE:AAN) Hamama project in eastern Egypt.
The company drilled a previously untested zone at Hamama called Hamama East and sunk deeper holes beneath the high grade gold and silver oxide cap to the west, an area where it has intersected in near-true width of 157 metres at 2.16 grams per tonne gold equivalent.
Already Alexander Nubia has identified one of the longest mineralised strikes of any volcanic massive sulphide deposit on the geological craton known as the Arabian Nubian Shield.
This craton, which runs beneath the Red Sea, is host to large gold and base metal deposits, including Centamin’s (LON:CEY) huge Egyptian deposit at Sukari and the newly developed Bisha mine in Eritrea, owned by Nevsun (TSX:NSU).
According to the Alexander Nubia literature, similar geological settings include the famous greenstone belts of the Yilgarn of Western Australia, the Birimian of West Africa, and the Abitibi in Quebec.
These are some of the most prolific gold producing areas in the world, and the potential that the Arabian Nubian Shield could develop on a par with these districts is very real indeed.
And while the style of mineralisation at Hamama doesn’t quite match that found at Sukari, there are encouraging similarities with other major deposits in the region, including Bisha, La Mancha’s Hassaï mine in Sudan, and the Jabal Sayid mine in Saudi Arabia owned in joint venture by Barrick and Al Ma’aden.
These are all regional success stories, and the early work at Hamama gives grounds for plenty of encouragement that such success can be repeated by Alexander Nubia.
For a start, there’s the 3,000 metre mineralised horizon right at the centre of the property, around which everything has thus far been worked.
To the west the company has discovered at surface a 900 metre long gold-oxide cap, from which preliminary metallurgical test results reported up to 92.2% gold recoveries.
Below the gold cap is the area from whence came that 157 metre drill hit, and from which additional deeper drill results are now pending.
The extensive surface manifestation likely reflects something more substantial at depth - the 157 metre drill hit could be the first of more to come.
In the centre and to the north, there’s more of a focus on zinc and copper mineralisation, and to the east, the hope is that the upcoming drill results will demonstrate the mineralisation of the project and provide the geological basis for a further round of work.
On a more general level, ongoing archaeological discoveries in and around Luxor continue to underline the richness of the region for both gold and copper in terms of artefacts discovered and alluded to.
“These areas where we explore are likely the areas where the pharaohs explored for and sourced their gold and copper,” says Alexander Massoud, the chief executive of Alexander Nubia.
That’s one exciting aspect of gold exploration in Egypt - it goes back a long, long time.
Another is that, following the upheavals of the past few years, the country is keen to encourage foreign investment.
Massoud is himself living testament to this. He’s lived and worked in Egypt since 2007 and has extensive government and in-country relationships.
He says: “The support of the government has been reflected in the past decisions by the Minister of Petroleum to extend the duration of the exploration period for both our Abu Marawat and Fartiri concessions and we believe we have a good case for an additional extension.”
The other exploration properties are in an earlier stage of development, but go to confirm that Alexander Nubia is not simply a one-trick pony.
In time, when mining markets come alive again, that may prove significant. Egypt has enacted new laws to promote investments in a number of sectors and, says Massoud, has a “genuine interest and commitment to create a pro-business and pro-investment climate.”
He also notes that the recent completion of the Suez Canal expansion shows a capability to undertake big projects, and to deliver on big investment plans.
So the missing piece of the jigsaw as far as Egypt is concerned isn’t geology or mineralisation or bureaucratic, it’s simply that global commodities markets are flat.
The best projects will always win through though.
Alexander Nubia was able to raise C$1mln earlier this year to press on with work at Hamama.
Now that the results are pending it will be interesting to see what happens next.