"Three gold mines have been discovered in al-Ela1qi Valley, South of Eastern desert," the Minister of Oil, Sameh Fahmi, announced yesterday.

    An Australian company discovered the three sites and said that the concentration of gold is very high and would almost certainly have an impact upon international markets.

    The Australian company had originally collected mineral samples from this area and sent them to its labs in Australia and South Africa for analysis.

    Results indicated that the high concentration of gold according to international standards.

    The company has since planned an extraction strategy which will begin in July; the required investments total at $400 million which includes the construction of a factory to refine the gold.

    It is also notable that this valley was a permanent gold source some 4000 years ago for the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.