Africa-based SP Mining has announced plans to extend its presence to the Middle East and North Africa by establishing a regional office or forming a strategic joint venture in the region.
The government of the Republic of Chad recently announced that SP Mining had been awarded a landmark concession to explore for minerals across a vast 130,000 sq km area within Chad.
It has also been awarded with a contract to conduct a survey of the remainder of the mineral-rich country, covering a land area of 1.2 million sq km from which SP Mining will be able to award itself an additional 70,000 sq km concession for exploration and mining, said a statement.
“The new concessions in Chad combined with our existing concessions in North Sudan and Guinea-Bissau make SP Mining one of the largest mining exploration and exploitation companies in the world,” said SP Mining president Farshad Zandi.
“These concessions hold immense potential mineral wealth, including gold, zinc, copper and diamonds, which have been extracted in significant quantities by artisanal miners on a small scale for a long time,” he said.
“In just one of our concessions in the region of Gadareef in North Sudan we have recently discovered one of the largest reserves of gold in Africa. Protracted conflicts in both Chad and North Sudan have prevented scientific exploration until recently,” he said.
The agreement with the Government of Chad grants SP Mining the right to create consortiums with third parties to facilitate exploration and extraction.
Zandi said that with the new concession in Chad, SP Mining is ready to consider expanding into the Middle East and North Africa region. “The Mena region is under-explored, so it is premature to make any definitive commitments yet, but we are in the process of establishing a presence in the region.”
SP Mining conducts its geological evaluations for the concessions it holds using the most advanced technologies developed by leading geologists from Graz University in Austria, world- renowned for the study of geosciences.
The data collected from the geological surveys and explorations in Chad will be analysed by scientists at the university, the statement said.
SP Mining is also in the process of negotiating for concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Equatorial and Sierra Leone and its operations continue to expand in Africa, it said.
