Two mining companies have discovered gold deposits in Ethiopia that could yield up to 41 tons, a top government mining official said on Friday. Gebre Egziabher Mekonen, head of the Mineral Operation Department in the Ministry of Mines and Energy, told Reuters the Golden Prospecting Mining Co., a British firm, had found a deposit of about 23 tons in western Ethiopia. “Discoveries by the British firm indicated that there is a viable prospect for gold mine development in the area. But it takes up to $200 million further investment to exploit the resources roughly within the next five to 10 years,” he said. Sakaro, a mining company operating under Midroc Gold Co., owned by Saudi business tycoon Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi, has also discovered a new deposit estimated at 18 tons in the Lege-Dgold belt, Gebre Egziabher said. The Golden Prospecting Mining discovery is at Tulu-Kapi, about 450 km (279.6 miles) west of the capital Addis Ababa and near the border with Sudan. The company is also exploring another site near Tulu-Kapi, which has indications of a separate reserve of 30 tons, Gebre Egziabher said. Once the two proven gold deposits were developed into mines, Ethiopia's annual income from the sector could reach up to $1.7 billion a year at current prices, from the present $105 million a year, he said. Ethiopia has earned $450.5 million from nearly 48 tons of gold exports in the last 10 years, according to statistics by the National Bank of Ethiopia. The country says it has indentified possible reserves of up to 500 tons in different parts of the country.
