Oil Ministry announces results of EMRA’s gold exploration tender: Four companies, including two foreign ones, have won the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority’s gold mining exploration tender for five concessions in the Eastern Desert and the Sinai Peninsula, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said in a statement on Monday. The UK’s Veritas Mining Limited won exploration rights to the Omm Ras concession, while Ghassan Spain Investment was awarded the Dahab concession. Egypt’s East Gas Company took home the Omm Oud and Hangaliya concession, while Resolute Egypt won both the Boukary and Omm Samra concession. The tender had been unpopular among a number of mining companies as a result EMRA’s insistence on production sharing agreements, with Centamin, Aton Resources, and Thani Stratex, the three largest mining companies in Egypt, refusing to bid. It had been reported back in April that 14 Egyptian and International companies had participated in the tender. The results were expected last month.