Alem Kibreab, from the Eritrean Ministry of Energy and Mines told Reuters, that another eight companies have been awarded licences for gold mining in Eritrea.

The new entrants are named as Andiamo Exploration and London Africa from Britain, Land and Energy and Zhongchang Mining from China, The Mining Share joint venture from Lybia and Eritrea, South Boulder and Gippsland from Australia as well as Spice Minerals from India.

Further, he informed Reuters that Eritrea’s first mining project, which is the Bisha Mining venture will start producing gold around the third quarter of 2010.

Alem states, that Eritrea is well aware of the negative side effects a gold boom could cause for the country, referring to historic exploitation of Africa’s mining resources by short term focused decision making.Thus Eritrea would aim for a sustainable and long term approach in developing the mining sector, which is expected to have important multiplier effects for the development of other industrial areas in the country.

Eritrea’s gold ventures appear to be promising and first signs where the road might lead to, can be observed from Nevsun Resources and its Bisha project in the near future. In March 2009 capitaleritrea reported about Nevsun’s ownership structure as well as the financial result it made for 2008.

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Sidney, Australia: Few days ago Nevsun Recourses published its Annual Result 2008 and confirmed that it is making progress in its gold mining efforts in Eritrea. Within days two other mining companies, namely Sub Sahara Resources and Chalice Gold Mines Ltd announced to merge in order to raise funds for Sub Sahara’s gold mining project in Eritrea. Both companies are listed on the Australian Stock Market and aim to invest in the Zara Project, which is a joint venture between the Government of Eritrea (31% stake) and Sub Sahara Resources (69% stake). Chalice Ltd is believed to have substantial cash resources of over 10 million Australian Dollars, which Sub Sahara requires in order to finance its Zara Gold Project in Eritrea.

Currently, there are six major international mining enterprises in joint ventures with the Eritrean Government. Four of them are Donia Resources & Co of China, Nevsun Resources and Sunridge Gold of Canada, Sub Sahara Resources of Australia.

The merger of both Sub Sahara and Chalice is subject to approval by the shareholders of Sub Sahara Resources. The move is especially important in the current economical situation, with banks not willing or able to provide substantial cash due to the financial crisis. According to Reuters the President of Eritrea has reshuffled the cabinet ministers for energy and environment in a move to address the increasing interest of foreign investors in Eritrea’s mineral resources. So far the western region of Eritrea has been promising in the exploration of gold with more than 2 million ounces of gold recovered until now.

Nevsun Resources LTD. is reporting a loss of US$5.7 million for the financial year 2008. Compared to the previous year the loss has been reduced by US$6.3 million from US$ 12 million in 2007.

Nevsun has a joint venture with the government of Eritrea to explore gold, copper and zinc under a project called Bisha, which is estimated to contain 27 million tonnes of ore consisting out of 1 million ounces of gold, 800 million lb of copper as well as 1 billion lb of zinc.

The project has so far raised US$250 million for mining infrastructure from the Eritrean government, which holds a 40% stake and Nevsun Resources, which holds a 60% of the shares.

Bisha has not laid out, when it is expecting to turnover the business and make a profit. Nevsun Recourses is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the Symbol NSU. Information about the financial result can be obtained from: Annual Report Nevsun Resources