AMMAN —
Remote sensing studies carried out by the Turkish company
Solvest estimates
gold concentrations in the Wadi Abu Khushaiba area, in the south of the
Kingdom, to range from 0.1 grams per tonne to 30 grams per tonne in areas of
its mineralization, the Jordan News Agency Petra, reported.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral
Resources, commercial reserves of gold may reach up to 60,000 ounces (about 1.7
tonnes), which is economically feasible. It added that there is the possibility
of doubling this figure several times by expanding the mining area.
Wadi Abu Khushaiba is located 90km northeast of
Aqaba, 4km east of the Dead Sea Road to Aqaba, in the Wadi Araba region.
The rocks in the area extend toward the northeast
and continue through a belt that is 2–4km wide and more than 70km long.
The director of the natural resources projects,
Bahjat Al-Adwan, said that if the feasibility of the project is proven, the company
will, at the end of the two memoranda of understanding, hand over a preliminary
economic feasibility study for the two projects to exploit copper and gold in
the areas allotted to it. The government has a partnership agreement with the
company that must be approved through a special law.
Adwan said that the best indicator in acidic
volcanic rocks was in the Abu Khushaiba Valley, where the concentration of gold
reached 40 grams per tonne from heavy metals collected from the valley
deposits.
Previously, the ministry said that geochemical
studies revealed indicators of gold mineral in the northern edge of the
Arab-Nubian Shield in southern Jordan.
The areas of Al-Hawr and Wadi Sabra, southeast of
Wadi Abu Khushaiba, are characterized by relatively high rates of gold
indicators; a semi-detailed geochemical survey was conducted in the two areas
recently.
Gold is used in the manufacture of electronics,
superconductors, and in jewelry. The ministry had launched a platform to
facilitate investments in mineral exploration, as part of the second batch of
government accelerators.
The ministry had identified 12 national ores for the
purposes of exploration, mining and commercial exploitation in the extractive
and manufacturing industries, including gold.
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