Granted Licences Totalling 1,586 Sq. Km
Altus Strategies Plc (AIM: ALS, TSXV:ALTS) has been granted four gold exploration licences totalling 1,565 sq. km located in the Eastern Desert of Egypt,
The nine new licence blocks have been awarded to the vompany’s 100% owned subsidiary Akh Gold Ltd, by the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority (EMRA).
Chief Executive, Steven Poulton, said the licences target potential historic workings as defined by in-house satellite data review
“We are delighted and honoured to announce that our subsidiary Akh Gold, has been awarded four gold exploration licences, comprising nine licence blocks that total 1,586 sq. km, within the highly prospective geology of the Eastern Desert of Egypt,” Mr Poulton said.
“The licences were selected based on our systematic in-house mineral prospectivity mapping programme, which incorporated satellite image interpretation and historic exploration data. All four licence areas host numerous priority targets, including areas with apparent historic artisanal gold workings.
“The award of the licences follows a competitive international bidding process, in which a number of major gold mining groups participated. Our decision to expand our activities into Egypt follows the strategic investment by Egyptian-owned La Mancha, which acquired a 35% interest in Altus in February 2020, and follows favourable amendments to the Egyptian Mineral Resources Act.
“It also reflects our belief in the substantial investment opportunity present in the country and is in line with our strategy to continue to grow our diversified portfolio of projects and royalties.
“The gold potential of Egypt and that of the wider Arabian-Nubian shield is world-renowned; from the Pharaonic era to the modern multi-million ounce gold mine at Sukari, operated by London and Toronto listed Centamin Plc. Our technical team will commence the planned first phase gold exploration programmes at the earliest opportunity, and we look forward to updating shareholders as exploration progresses.”
The Licences were awarded to Akh Gold Limited as part of Egypt’s inaugural and competitive international exploration licence bid round. All four licences are situated in eastern Egypt, between 30 km and 100 km of the Red Sea coast. The Licences have been awarded for an initial two-year term, with each Licence renewable for up to two further periods each of two years duration.
Altus is exploring all of the Licences for gold, specifically targeting orogenic deposits within volcanics formations and granitic intrusions, as well as potential gold-bearing Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) systems hosted in ancient seafloor sequences.
