Johannesburg, South Africa: Anglo Gold Ashanti Limited and Thani Dubai Mining Limited have announced the formation of a strategic alliance to explore, develop and operate mines across the Middle East and parts of North Africa.

Countries of interest include Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Eritrea, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. Each company will have a 50% interest in the alliance which will explore for gold, precious and base metals.

The alliance is intending to bring together a combination of regional business knowledge and relationships with global exploration and mining expertise. Thani has extensive knowledge of developing resource businesses in the Middle East and Africa, long standing and high level relationships with national governments and major industry players, a thorough understanding of risks associated with mineral resource development and the requisite technical know-how. Read the full story

Sub-Sahara Resources Limited announced that a Scheme Booklet for the planned merger with Chalice Gold Mines has been filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

A Scheme Booklet contains detailed information how the proposed merger of both companies is going to be arranged. The consent of Australian regulators for transaction of this nature requires the approval of the Australian Stock Exchange Limited (ASX) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Further, Sub-Sahara has been granted a loan facility of $450.000 from Chalice Gold Mines Limited in order to fund continued development at the Zara Project (Koka Deposit) in Northern Eritrea.

The $450.000 loan is given interest free until 01.09.2009; thereafter the ANZ rate for loans over $100.000 plus 3% will apply.

Chalice Gold Mines has proposed to Sub-Sahara share holders 1 Chalice Share for every 10.73 Sub-Sahara Share.

The merger is set out to combine the strong cash deposit of Chalice with Sub-Sahara’s 69% ownership of the Zara Gold Project in Eritrea.

Further, Chalice is planning to increase the ownership stake on the Zara Project to 80% once the merger has been completed. The time table for the merger is delayed by three weeks at this stage, because the initial plan to file the Scheme Booklet with the ASIC was the 11.05.2009.

This might postpone the finalization of the merger slightly, which will be also subject to third party and Sub-Sahara shareholders approval, towards mid - August - 2009.

Being in the middle of an economical downturn is definitely not going to be a very easy situation for many people around the world. Nevertheless, it is a periodic occurrence, which is necessary to put things right in a world living too often beyond its means.

Eritrea has been on the track of self-reliance since the independence gained from Ethiopia in the beginning of the Nineties. In many fields, such as humanitarian aid, foreign investment exposure and transport infrastructre, it chose directions apart from the norm of other African countries.

Of course this is the harder way to go for a nation and often difficult to comprehend, because it requires sacrificing in first instance. Moreover, for many years Eritreans have lived far below their means for the sake of their nation and national identity. While others, which now have to come into terms with the bubble burst, used to know no limit.

Thus in times of recession individuals, corporates, national economies and the world tend to lay out their cards newly because it resembles a period of chance, thoughtfulness and self scrutiny.

This is also a chancel for Eritrea to enter into a new relationship in respect to international trade. Especially as a nation, which has a big tourism potential, is soon to enter into the mining industry and is opening its sea ports for free trade.

On the preparations for the upcoming Eritrean National Day on the 24th May 2009, the President of Eritrea has explained to Reuters News Agency, how the country is going to approach these challenges.

“The Norwegians would like to talk about 150 years from now. The Nigerians may want to exploit all their oil resources in 10 days or 10 hours or maybe 10 years, and that’s it, you’re finished. This is a resource of generations.” (President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea on Reuters News Agency)

The President believes that economical stimulation has to be sustainable in order to fit a nations characteristic of infrastructure. Therefore, he suggests that instead of a tempting short term approach, Eritrea should seek for a more adequate pace to manage the exposure to a free market and a influx of foreign investment. This would be the only way how to best serve Eritrea’s interests for todays and the coming generations ahead.

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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The World Bank has published it’s “Doing Business 2009″ report on Eritrea. Since 2006 the World Bank is publishing a report every year on the conditions for starting up a business in 181 countries. In the 2009 World Bank analysis, Eritrea is rated based on 10 quantitative indicators, which measure the climate for opening a business in Eritrea in comparison to other economies.

The indicators are;

• starting a business
• dealing with construction permits
• employing workers
• registering property
• getting credit
• protecting investors
• paying taxes
• rading across borders
• enforcing contracts
• closing a business

From the 10 indicators above the following outline is going to focus solely on starting a business and protecting investors. At the bottom of this article a summary of the “Ease of Doing Business” result for Eritrea will be given.

The business we are looking to start up is a limited liability company, which is comparable across economies, in the biggest city of Eritrea (Asmara). The company is 100% domestically owned, does not own real estate or is receiving special benefits and does employ between 10 to 50 employees. The start up capital is 10 times income per capita.

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On the first of May, Sub- Sahara Resources NL released the latest update on it’s Koka Gold Mining Deposit. The company owns a mining licence, which covers 147m² in the northern part of Eritrea in a project called the Zahra joint venture.

Independent consultants to Sub-Sahara Resources, have prepared a report that estimates the deposit to 5.04 million tonnes of gold with an average grade of 5.8 g/t for 944000 ounces of Gold from a cut-off of 1.2 g/t.

Sub-Saharan officials point out that despite the drop of the average grade of gold from 6.3 g/t to 5.8 g/t, the gold deposit in Eritrea remains to be a robust and promising recourse.

In order to strengthen its position and expand it’s operation Sub- Sahara intends to merge with Chalice Gold Mines Ltd in order to be able to raise capital for further investments into the gold project in Eritrea.

The Gold Mining Industry is emerging in Eritrea (capitaleritrea) rapidly and might become the future backbone for further economical prospect in Eritrea.

The Zara joint venture is currently in the process of applying for a licence to explore 468m² of area in northern Eritrea.