Principles of Leadership for Sustainable Development in the Mineral Resources Sector

Egypt has strong potential to develop further its mineral resources sector and attract significant international investment. Australia is an international leader in mining with years of experience and many strong successful mining companies around the world. The Australian embassy is proud to be supporting the visit to Egypt by two experts from the western Australian department of mines, industry regulation and safety, who did share their expertise on developing a sustainable mining sector. The Australian embassy views this as a valuable opportunity to facilitate exchanges and further cooperation between mining and resource ministries from Egypt and Australia; in this context the Egyptian council for sustainable development organized a workshop with Mr. Tony Bullen, General Manager Resources Access – Ministry of Mining & Industry Regulations, Australia; Mr. Vence d’Angelo, Manager Systems and Analysis – Ministry of Mining & Industry Regulations, Australia and Ms. Lisa White, Charge D’Affaires – Australian embassy in Cairo.

In the opening remarks Ms. Rania Wagdy welcomed all members and guests, then she mentioned that as Egypt has a great potential of natural mineral resources which hasn’t yet benefited from it with optimal exploitation, this has resulted in a limited contribution of the mineral sector to the GDP, contributing with less than half percent despite the great potential and huge wealth; as 94% of Egypt is dessert, which if fully utilized will certainly has a significant growth on the economy. On the other side, the mining sector currently has great attention from the government as a major supply to push the economy, and increase growth rates. She added as Australia is one of the leading countries in the field of mining so it is important to exchange experience between Egypt and Australia and benefit from the Australian experience for the Egyptian mining sector, also the workshop will come up with a set of recommendations that could be our nucleus for the future cooperation between the two sites in this field.

Dr. Mohamed Zaher, ECSD Mining committee chairman welcomed the guests, in the name of the ECSD. Then he presented his thanks to the government of Western Australia, the department of mines and industry of regulation and safety for launching the workshop, he further thanked the Australian Embassy and all guests for giving the ECSD a chance for this workshop. He explained that Egypt represents the near future is the natural resources sector in the middle east, as it provides an environment for the technical and capital firms to incubate, finance, manage and build public and private companies, this is supported by the privilege technological setup of the country, as well as the continuous restructuring of the mining law to attract foreign investments. The availability of the competitive prices gives momentum to this aim, also the infrastructure, preferential access to key global markets, micro economic potentiality, and diversified economy.

Ms. Lisa White, Charge D’Affaires – Australian embassy in Cairo, discussed that Australia is a leader in mining, as the successful Australian mining sector has helped the Australian economy achieve 25% increase in economic growth where it has provided jobs, investment and foreign currency. Mining has been a driving force for much of the exploration of the remote Australian land and for Australia’s industrial development. She added that Australia has mining and resource construction companies as well as the mining services and technology. Also there are more than 200 Australian companies now in cooperation to invest in mining with 40 million dollars. It is believed that Egypt has strong potential in mining sector and it is an excellent example for what can be achieved, as Australia believes that as this happened in Australia the development of the Egyptian mining sector could open the door to benefits of international investment, further job opportunities and increase in foreign currency.

Dr. Ayman El Saaey mentioned that Egypt has several resources in the mining sector that can attract investment, on the other hand Australia is a leader in the mining sector that has several years of experience and several successful companies that operate all over the world like “El Sukkari” in Egypt. He added that the development and improvement of the mining sector in Egypt is on top priority of the economic development program of the government, which is currently working on attracting new investment and multinational companies to efficiently exploit Egypt’s natural and mining resources, and increase their contribution to the GDP. Egypt is one of the oldest countries that exploited gold and silver and that has a lot of old gold mines which is considered an important opportunity to invest in research and make use of it, as “El Sukkari” gold mine which is considered one of the top 10 gold mines in the world. Also there are now several research and exploitation companies that have been operating in Egypt for several years. Moreover the cooperation and benefit from the Australian experience through workshops and events in the mining sector will support promoting and improving the mining sector in Egypt.

Mr. Tony Bullen explained that Australia’s success required significant inputs, focusing on legislation of mining system, community engagement, collaboration, environmental regulations, financial return, special arrangement project by project and embracing new opportunities. He added that the Egyptian economy must have fundamentals in place as transparency, also exploration provide a lot of opportunities. Western Australia is the biggest mining state where each state has separate mining legislation; he presented diagrams and statistics which shows the details of the Australian mining sector. It was further explained that sustainability is based on 6 principles which are government and transparency, fiscal frame work, sustainability, strategic planning, investment practices and state engagement; each principle was explained in details throughout the presentation

Vence d’Angelo Manager systems and analysis mentioned that the laws and legislation has played an important role for the development of the mining sector in Australia and its growth over time; as legislation tracks investment which was reflected on the revenue of the state, where the total value of exports has grown from 20 billion dollar per year to a 100 million dollar across the whole industry. He added that regulation attracts exploration, which is very important but they need greener field exploration to expand their scope; which will further contribute to the success of the whole industry.

The workshop was divided into two days where there were open discussions across, new ideas and suggestions to develop the mining sector and also to benefit from the Australian experience and follow the same steps in order to achieve growth rates.