With Canada's Barrick Gold, the world's second largest gold exploration company, the Egyptian Petroleum Ministry announced the signing of the Mineral Wealth Authority, four contracts, to search for gold.

The Ministry also added in a statement that this was the company's first investment in Egypt, and that it would look for gold in 19 sectors in Eastern Sahara with a total investment of $8.8 million.

Barrick Gold is one of 11 global and Egyptian companies that won a gold search bid last November.

This included 320 sectors with a total area of 56,000 square kilometres,