Evaluating Egypt’s Mining Landscape

Updated 12/13/2025 9:00:00 AM

Egypt is advancing an ambitious plan to modernize its mining sector and scale up exploration across the country. Recent discussions led by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources highlighted new investment prospects, progress on legislative reforms, and preparations for the nation’s largest airborne geophysical survey. Supported by strong geological potential, reliable infrastructure, and growing global interest, Egypt aims to establish itself as a leading regional mining hub.

In this Factsheet, we shed light on the latest key performance indicators of Egypt’s mining sector, highlighting its economic importance and contribution.

The incentive packages that Egypt is implementing target stimulating exploration and attracting small and mid-sized mining companies. These incentives include lower annual fees during early exploration stages, tax and customs exemptions on equipment, and a unified licensing system that simplifies multi-mineral exploration.
The country’s diverse mineral wealth strengthens its global competitiveness. Gold remains the cornerstone, led by the world-class Sukari mine, complemented by significant deposits of copper, iron ore, and rare earth elements essential for advanced technologies and renewable energy systems. Egypt also holds substantial reserves of phosphate, silica sand, limestone, soda ash, and kaolin, supporting industries such as fertilizers, construction, glassmaking, ceramics, and paper.
The number of operating mines increased to 367 in fiscal year (FY) 2023/24, up from 355 a year earlier. While the rise is modest, it signals growing investor confidence as companies respond to improved regulatory frameworks, updated geological mapping, and clearer investment procedures.
The Egyptian government has set an ambitious target to elevate the mining sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) to 5% by 2030. Over the past few years, it was able to move gradually towards this goal, when the sector’s contribution increased from 1% in FY2019/20 to 2% in FY 2024/25, equivalent to EGP 335.56 billion.
Egypt’s recent sector growth has been driven by major reforms and increased investment. A key milestone was the launch of the Digital Mining Platform in early 2025, aimed at modernizing the industry by streamlining licensing, improving transparency, and giving investors better access to data.
The government has also signed new exploration and development deals with international companies, including a preliminary framework to boost gold exploration. In addition, a draft law has been introduced to update exploration and prospecting agreements to make them more attractive to investors.
In FY 2024/25, public investments implemented in the mining sector increased by around 13% year-on-year, reaching around EGP 401 million. Despite this significant increase, mining investments represented a very low share of the government’s total investments, accounting for only 0.04%.
Egypt’s exports of precious metals reached $3.26 billion in 2024, marking a substantial annual increase of 75.4%. Iron exports came second at $2.21 billion, followed by copper at $1.04 billion, up 49.7%.

By: Amina Hussein