Egypt Plans a State-Backed Company to License Artisanal Gold Miners and Free Detainees, as a Lawmaker Notes 151 Egyptians and 540 Foreigners Detained Since June
Egypt plans to set up a company under the Future of Egypt Authority to license artisanal gold miners and free those jailed for illegal mining, after a meeting convened by tribal leader and business mogul Ibrahim al-Organi, a lawmaker said.
Mona Shaker, a National Front party lawmaker for Aswan, said in a Facebook video that people arrested while prospecting would be freed, but not anyone found to be involved in killings or drug offences.
The military has said it detained 151 Egyptians and 540 foreigners in its crackdown on illegal mining since June, and it was not clear how many remain in custody or whether foreigners would be covered.
Pro-government media reported that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi directed the meeting but no official statement has been issued, and Future of Egypt could not immediately be reached for comment.
The deal would bring informal prospectors into a licensed system after the military made the crackdown its main response to illegal mining, and would also give Future of Egypt, which reports directly to the presidency but began under the military, a role in a sector the government wants to expand, while security is a major obstacle for investors, illegal miners have at times violently blocked access to exploration concessions, an executive told Reuters in September, the military said on November 5 that two officers had been killed in the campaign, and in October a rights monitor said at least 72 miners died in an airstrike in northern Sudan near the border and blamed Egypt air force, a report the military did not address at the time.
Source: Parliament of Egypt
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：埃及阿斯旺高坝全景（资料图），阿斯旺是涉手工金矿议员的选区所在地。Hajor，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Aswan High Dam in Egypt (file photo); Aswan is the constituency of the lawmaker cited in this story. By Hajor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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