RE:Commercial discovery - really?A couple quotes for you here that may be helfpul:
Mark Campbell: Yes, it is unprecedented. As we’ve discussed at length, Peter, when Centamin first went through this process back in 2001, things were very different. For one thing, EMRA didn’t even exist. The process then, was managed by EGSMA, the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority, which was under the Ministry of Industry at the time. As far as EMRA, which is now under the Ministry of Petroleum, this is the first time they have ever dealt with the permitting and launch of new mining project. ...
Mark Campbell: It is a bit of a funny situation that there are only two publicly traded companies operating in Egypt, isn’t it? One is Centamin, which is a large mining company with a $2.7B market cap. Then, there is us – a junior exploration company with a $5M market. Resolute Mining has a market cap of approximately $750M and it is encouraging to see a good sized publicly traded company like Resolute entering into Egypt.
We'd love to see more junior exploration companies come here. We think that the opportunity is enormous. There has been a change in the management at the EMRA and I think things are moving in the right direction.