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Monday, 26th March 2007 (3239 views)

A mining company claims to have found significant deposits of gold at a project in Ethiopia.

The National Mining Corporation (NMC) told a news conference today that it had discovered 10,000 tonnes of the precious metal.

A company spokesman told reporters that the find would be worth around $1 billion for the African state's fragile economy.

"When production starts the country could earn up to $1 billion from gold exports that would help its development," the Reuters news agency quoted Melaku Beza as saying.

NMC is owned by Sheikh Mohammed Aboud Al Amoudi, who is of Ethiopian descent.

The business tycoon, who now holds Saudi citizenship, is thought to be one of the richest Arabs in the world.

If the find is verified it would be good news for Ethiopia, which is still emerging from famine and drought suffered during the 1970s and 1980s.

In recent years, the east African state has been a key ally of the US, as the Bush administration seeks to stem the spread of Islamist fundamentalism in the Horn of Africa.

 

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