Sawiris-backed Altus Strategies has made multiple “high grade” gold discoveries across the four projects held by its Egypt subsidiary Akh Gold, it said in a statement yesterday. The company has mapped more than 100 hard artisanal gold workings with grades of up to 100g of gold per ton, it said, adding that samples show a prospect of multiple multi-km long prospective structures.

Further discoveries coming soon? “Maiden exploration results indicate that we may already be on the tail of a number of potentially significant hard rock gold discoveries,” said Altus CEO Steven Poulton.

The company just won new exploration licenses: Altus was awarded two gold exploration licenses in the Eastern Desert earlier this month in the government’s recent bid round. The company said the two blocks cover 349 sq km, bringing the company’s total land holding to 1.9k sq km.

The announcement comes as the Oil Ministry bids farewell to competitive bid rounds following low interest in the recent tender. Going forward, the ministry will rely on direct contracts for new gold exploration licenses, source from the ministry told Bloomberg Asharq earlier this week.

Four miners landed licenses to explore for gold in the Eastern Desert in the latest bid round as we reported last week, including Ankh Resources, Akh Gold, Canadian miner Lotus Gold, and Marine Logistic.