Background
The Semna prospect is located approximately 27km east-northeast of the Hamama West deposit and 13km north-northeast of the Rodruin deposit, and is accessed via desert tracks from either Hamama, Rodruin or the Abu Marawat deposit some 10km to the north.
The Semna area has a long history of gold mining, during both ancient and modern times. There was archaeological evidence in the area suggesting that mining dates back as far as the Old Kingdom period, over 4,500 years ago. In modern times, Semna was exploited between 1904 and 1906 by two British companies, which worked the Main Vein on two underground levels. By about 1908 however, the British gold mining industry in Egypt had been almost totally eclipsed by the discovery of oil.
There was also some further development work carried out at Semna in the 1950’s by a subsidiary of the Egyptian Phosphate Company. It has been reported that the Semna mine had the widest vein exploited during the British era of mining in Egypt, which reached up to 6m width in places, and the British companies reported mining grades of over 2oz per ton.
Reports from the Mining Journal from 1905 indicated that some remnant pillars within the ancient Pharaonic-era stopes assayed up to 5.5oz per ton of gold.
RC drilling at Semna, July 2023