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Khartoum, (sudanow.info.sd) - Sudan has been known as a gold mining country since the times of the Egyptian pharaohs. But now the gold fever has hit many in Sudan, with some comparing it to the various gold rushes in 19th century North America.

However, the recent scramble in country has been motivated by finding alternative sources of revenue from oil that Sudan lost since July 9, following the separation of the South in a referendum held in January 2011, when the population in the south of the country voted in favor of secession. 75% of the country´s oil business is located in the new Republic of South Sudan.

Gold Rush Lures Thousands of Sudanese

Not only the government in Khartoum becomes optimistic about the gold prospects, but many Sudanese are lured by the gold wealth. The north is experiencing a gold-mining boom, motivated by the ever-rising price of the yellow metal at world markets.

Almost one million Sudanese work in traditional gold mining. Prospecting has spread throughout Sudan’s Blue Nile, Red Sea and Nile States.

Briefing the media at an event organized by Taiba Press last August at the Officers Club in Khartoum, Sudan’s Minister of Mining Abdel Bagi al- Gailani said, “Gold’s contribution to Sudan’s treasury will amount to $4 billion this year, in addition to another billion dollars from other metals,” adding that “46% of Sudan's land is gold and 70 tonnes were produced last year. Taking into account our inability to involve into large scale production, we defined remote areas for corporate companies; but their production does not exceed 3 tons per year”.

Dr. Gailani

“200 companies have now been given licenses for prospecting for gold in Sudan, (5) of which will come into work this year and we seek to encourage everyone to enter the field of mining,” he said.

But Dr Gailani recognizes the negative environmental impacts of both traditional gold mining as well as hazards encountered by prospectors. He believes they could be mitigated through sound management. “With the provision of services and taking measures to preserve this national wealth and its mining which is not friendly to the environment, we endeavoring to improve the situation for future generations”, said Gailani.

Tabidi, one of tens of thousands of small-scale Sudanese prospectors, told the media “hazardous expeditions were undertaken across barren areas to search for gold, drawn by tales of big finds and prices that have topped record highs this year above $1476 an ounce”.

Tales abound of unprepared prospectors running out of water in the desert or being robbed, but they are often overlooked in favour of reports of getting rich as one prospector was reported to find a 60kg rock of high-quality gold, which he sold for a cool $1,6-million in Khartoum's gold market.

“We can not prevent the traditional miners. We are seeking to organize all the work through the Mining Act and raise awareness of the dangers of mining”, Gailanisaid.

Cooperative groups have also been set up in some states to ensure that miners do not resort to child labour and make them aware of the health and environmental risks involved, he said.

"We have to keep an eye on them, we have to group them and we have to provide them with some health services because they are using very toxic materials like mercury," Gailani.

Gailani revealed that gold is smuggled into foreign countries to be refined and sold because of the difference in prices.

It is reported that a large portion of Sudan´s gold is being smuggled and is offered at the bazaars and markets of the Middle East, notably in Beirut, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The government plans to offer incentives to small-scale prospectors to attract them to sell their mined gold in the country and thus make it available to Sudanese citizens.

Gailani predicts Sudan´s output will reach 70 tonnes by the end of this year. Small-scale prospectors are expected to contribute about 60 tonnes to this year´s total output.

According to the minister´s calculations Sudan will become Africa´s third-largest gold mining country – behind South Africa and Ghana – and the tenth largest in the world. He explained that the size of the gold in the Sudan generally will be defined after drawing the detailed geo map

Re-unearhing of the Ancient Wealth

Domestic mining (an activity relying on rudimentary technology to extract various minerals) is a well-known activity that is as old as the country’s history. Gold mining in Sudan dates back to Pharoanic times, according to historical records.

A. Paul, in his book ‘A History of the Beja Tribes’ gave a fascinating account of the story of gold mining particularly in the Red Sea Hills of Eastern Sudan during the Pharoanic times:

Excerpts from Chapter IV of (A.PAUL, A History of the Beja Tribes of the Sudan, Cambridge University Press 1955)

THE GOLD AND INCENSE LANDS

(2500 – 50 B.C.)

And I have brought thee splendid gold,

The strong man’s joy, refined and cold. FLECKER

When gold was first discovered in the hills inhabited by the ancient Beja is not exactly known, but it has been placed by some authorities as early as 3000-2500 B.C., and it is possible that the first expeditions to the eastern deserts for exploitation of gold were sent out under the powerful V^th Dynasty (2745-2625 B.C.).[1] About this time also, in the reign of Pepi II, c. 2644 B.C., an expedition under a captain called Sebni was sent farther south and east to what was then known as the God’s Land of Punt which, besides ivory, gold and skins, brought back a rich store of the resins and incense so essential to the rites and mysteries of ancient Egypt. From then on, for nearly seven hundred years, there was a steady and profitable trade in aromatics, frankincense and myrrh, across Tigréto the river ports of the Nile valley. The famous expedition of Queen Hatepshut, of the brilliant and able XVIII^th Dynasty, which rediscovered Punt about 1450 B.C. brought back with it an astonishing cargo containing all goodly fragrant woods of God’s Land, heaps of myrrh-resin, fresh myrrh trees, ebony, pure ivory, green gold of Amu, cinnamon wood….ihmut incense, sonter incense, eye cosmetic, apes, monkeys, dogs, skins of the southern panther…[2]

About the same time also the Pharaohs became interested in the development of the trade in precious stones from the Red Sea islands, and St John Island, whence were exported peridots and chrysolites rather than the real topaz, has been identified as the “Topaz Isle” of the ancients. Tortoise-shell was also in great demand, and as a luxury trade was to have a long life, extending well into the Middle Ages.

Under the early Middle Empire (the XII^th – XIV^th Dynasties, 2000-1580B.C.) such mines as were then known, those of Nubia, and in the Eastern Desert to the north, approximately, of the present Sudan-Egyptian frontier, were worked to capacity and to this period belongs the first known portrait of a Bejawi, represented unmistakably on the XII^th Dynasty tomb chapel at Meir in Upper Egypt, ‘showing the slender limbs, pointed nose, retracted abdomen, broad chest, and the great shock of hair of the modern Beshari or Hadendawi’.[3]

Under the Bedawin XV^th and XVI^th Dynasties the mines do not appear to have been worked, but their exploitation was continued with renewed energy under the New Empire. Thutmose 1, a Pharaoh of the XVIII^th Dynasty, considered the gold trade of sufficient importance to justify appointment of a ‘Governor of the Gold Country of Coptos ’, and it is alleged that Thutmose III about 1420 B.C. drew revenue of 2400 pounds weigh of gold from the minesof Nubia and the Eastern Desert. So much gold was indeed in Egypt, from the Nubian, Sinaitic and Eastern Desert mines, that it was for long regarded as an inferior metal to silver, and was much more commonly in use up to about 1800 B.C.

By about 1300B.C., however, the supply was falling off, and sank to a low as 600-800 pounds weigh annually. Seti l of the XIX^th Dynasty (1320-1300B.C.) therefore took steps to restore the supply: his expeditions pushed farther south in search of new lodes, and attempted unsuccessfully to develop the Derheib mine in the Wadi Allagi (Akaita), and it may be to him that we owe production of the earliest known map in the world, the Turin Papyrus, which almost certainly a representation of the Derheib mine. He improved the route between the mines and the Nile valley by opening new wells, but the well which he dug in the Wadi Allege ran dry with disastrous results for the mining community, and the successful exploitation of the mine was left to his successor Rameses II (1307-1233 B.C.) who dug a new well and improved the old one;

and also to Amenemhat III, who built a fort at Dakka, where the Wadi Allagi joins the Nile, for the protection of the gold caravans, and as an entrepôt for shipment of gold to Memphis.

The Red Sea hills, as far south approximately as the present Port Sudan-Atbara railway line, are full of ancient workings, of which no less than about eighty-five important ones have been charted within recent years. The workings consist of shafts of as much as 150 ft. or more, in which wooden props were used to support any weakness in the adit. The ore was crushed in hand-mills, examples of which are still to be found, together with traces of primitive but none the less effective washing tables, though some of these no doubt belong to the medieval Arab period. The conditions under which gold was extracted were appalling almost beyond description. The Pharaohs sent to the mines their political enemies, criminals, captives of war, and all who had in any way incurred their displeasure. This human material, whose only release from misery and toil beneath the whip of brutal overseers was by death, was expended prodigally and callously, and with regard to nothing provided that the output of gold was maintained. Large garrisons were maintained at the most important mines, and the expedition which Remeses III sent to the Eastern Desert to search for gold about 1180 B.C. consisted of upwards of 8000 persons, including 5000 soldiers, 2000 crown slaves, and 800 foreign captives. Camels being then unknown, donkeys were used for transport of stores and gold to and from the mines, and caravans were escorted through the desert by Nubian soldiery called matachai.

The Pharaohs of the XX^th Dynasty, and especially Rameses III (1198-1167 B.C.), continued the exploitation not only of the gold-mines but also of the incense trade, which became of more importance than ever, for all Egypt desired to be ‘perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant.’[4] But her power was in decline, and after the fall of the XX^th Dynasty expeditions to Punt were no longer sent out, and the trade routes to the Nile and the canals connecting it with the Red Sea fell into decay and disuse.

Heliodorus, bishop of Emesa, who wrote a history and description of Ethiopia in the fourth century A.D., states that the Beja (Blemmyes) were subject to Meroë and that they fought as allies of the XXV^thDynasty kings against Persia and were released from payment of tribute for fourteen years in return for their services. Nastasenen of Meroë is said to have raided the Eastern Desert gold-mines five times about 290 B.C. and to have been rewarded with 800 troy pounds of gold, gold dust, and 1,250,000 head of cattle. Even allowing that rainfall was heavier and pastures greener and more permanent in those days, it is unlikely that the country ever supported even a quarter of that number, unless of course sheep and goats are included. The present-day cattle population is probably rather less than 175,000 head.

As Egypt fell sick the mines were abandoned; for nearly eight hundred years the Eastern Desert and the hills between the Nile and the sea lapsed into age-long obscurity, and it is not until about 300 B.C., when the captains of the Lagid Dynasty began to explore the coast southwards, that any more is hear.

Ancient kingdoms of Sudan, Nubia was renowned for its gold deposits," said Geoff Emberling, from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, according to National Geographic News. (Source:Africa, gold price, Middle East, mining, Author: Roman Baudzus).

Ancient Egypt conquered Kush some 3,000 years ago and took "hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of gold each year" in tribute, Mr Emberling said.

The new discoveries show that ancient Kush extended for up to 750 miles along the River Nile.

Near the gold processing centre, the archaeologists found some 90 graves.

"We found one laughably tiny gold bead in the burials, but that was the only gold we found," Mr Emberling said.

"It seems certain that the gold was not used locally. Very likely the gold was for the benefit of the ruler and his circle in Kerma," 225 miles upstream from Hosh el-Geruf.

Recent Prospecting

More than a century ago, a British firm worked the Omm Nabardi and Gebeit mines in the Red Sea Hills area. All exploration done prior to 1980 was based on

the old-time, traditional methods of testing quartz vein outcroppings, and the only mines that were developed were small underground operations. Between 1980 and 1985, testing by British and French companies in the Red Sea Hills area produced new gold discoveries at Gebeit and Wadi Ariab.

A similar recent gold rush occurred in Sudan in the early 80’s back when gold prices were spiking. At that time, the locals were picking rice grain sized nuggets right up off the top of the ground using only their eyes. Because the number of visible nuggets suitable for "specking" is very limited, the gold rush did not last long.

The geology indicates that the soils are very high in iron (what detectorists refer to as “mineralization” of the soil) and would require Pulse-Induction type detectors to effectively work them. Pulse-Induction type detectors are the kind pioneered by Minelab, and came on the market about 1999. The type of detectors available in the 80’s when the last rush was on, were Very-Low-Frequency (VLF) types, which would have been very difficult if not impossible to use in the Sudanese environment. (Source: Gold and Silver, Chip Saunders, 02-15-2010).

The local Sudanese miners for many years have worked to develop small-scale operations based on shallow quartz veins and desert placer mining methods. The comparatively new Pulse-Induction metal detector technology has given them a new option to work these areas profitably in spite of the difficult conditions. As this gold rush unfolds, we will attempt to keep you updated on any important finds.

Large Scale prospection

But while traditional gold mining continues in parts of the country, dreamers of get-rich-quick schemes have come up short. The rudimentary tools used yield only small amounts of gold, according to those returning from traditional mining areas in Sudan’s Nile State.

Significant progress in metal detection in recent years was instrumental in the discovery of large amounts of sedimentary gold under the earth’s surface. Improved infrastructure, especially roads, has eased access to remote areas rich in gold.

Modern gold exploration techniques are just now being applied in Sudan, and they are starting to yield some significant discoveries that simply could not be recognized using traditional prospecting methods.

Among gold prospectors who use metal detectors, the Minelab brand is renowned as being the premier manufacturer of today’s latest technologically advanced metal detectors used for hunting gold nuggets. (Detectorists call it “nugget-shooting”.) More expensive than ever before, Minelab’s top of the line GPX-4500 will easily set you back about $4500, if you can find one that is.

Last year, used GPX-4500 detectors manufactured by Minelab began selling at prices significantly more than they cost new. (Source: Gold and Silver, Chip Saunders, 02-15-2010).

There is a big demand for detectors in Sudan, and relatives living in other countries are being recruited to help purchase these detectors and any related supplies that are available on the market wherever they can be found. There is also supposed to be a very robust black market.

Why a black market? Because metal detectors are banned in Sudan. They are illegal because of their utility in regards to landmines and the continuing wars that have plagued the area. Thusly, every single metal detector in Sudan is smuggled in.This fact, plus the long civil war, difficult and remote conditions explain why this region has not been extensively detected previously.

It is also illegal for the gold to leave the country. The government requires it be sold to them in exchange for paper currency. So the smuggling of gold out of the country is also a new and expanding enterprise. Much of the money for purchasing the detectors – and the destination for the smuggled gold – is Dubai; a city closely associated with this new gold rush.

The Other Side of the Gold Make-up

The Central Bank of Sudan data show that the country’s non-oil exports increased by 34% or $451.91 million in the first quarter of this year, in large part owing to increases in gold exports. Sudan´s gold production has increased nearly twenty-fold in the last two years. In the first quarter of this year, Sudan’s gold exports grew by 45% to $246.88 million.

Citing a boost of foreign currency from export returns in the past year, economists pointed to the benefits of domestic mining, adding returns could total three billion dollars this year.

However, they say turning gold into economic power in northern Sudan needs years of ongoing exploration before it can make a significant contribution to national income.

At a recent seminar on mining, analysts shed light on the challenge of integrating gold extraction into Sudan’s economy. Given the illegality of numerous mining operations, along with the transient nature of these marginalised activities as miners travel from one region to another, fee collection and monitoring by the state are all the more difficult.

The reluctance of financial institutions to purchase gold from miners, they add, has opened the door to smuggling.

They call for widespread organization of Sudan’s domestic mining operations to benefit the national economy.

Also the government should promote traditional gold mining as an employment opportunity for young job seekers, they said.

End

H Z

[1] According to Floyer the earliest for gold were a race of negrold stock, distinct from the pastoral Hamitic Beja, who were prior to, or contemporaneous with, the dynastic Egyptians who eventually drove them from the mines by armed aggression.

[2]Breasted, Ancient records of Egypt, vol. II, p. 109

[3] D. Newbold, ‘The Beja Tribes of the Red Sea Hills’, in The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from within (ed. Hamilton, 1935), p. 145.

[4] Songs of Solomon, iii, 6.

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