Sisi Urges Gov't to Maximize Value Added of Black Sand's Minerals

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met today, Thursday, with the Director-General of the National Service Projects Organization (NSPO) of the Armed Forces, Maj Gen Walid Abul-Magd, and discussed maximizing the value-added of mineral extracted from Egypt's black sands.

The meeting was attended by Advisor to the Director General of NSPO Maj Gen Mokhtar Abdel Latif, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Company for Animal Production Maj Gen Mohamed Salah, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Black Sand Company Maj Gen Magdy El-Taweel, Nuclear Materials Authority member Dr. Waleed Mohrez, and Executive Director of “MEVAC”, a factory manufacturing vaccines, Dr. Magdy El-Sayed.

"The meeting discussed efforts to maximize the value-added of minerals extracted from the black sands in Egypt," said Presidency Spokesperson Bassam Rady on Thursday following the end of the meeting.

Rady added that "In this regard, the map of the various economic minerals found in the black sands in Egypt, as well as their industrial applications, were presented."

The meeting also discussed the projects carried out by the Egyptian Black Sand Company in partnership with foreign expertise, the economic feasibility and investment cost of those projects, and similar international experiences.

Moreover, Sisi gave directives to scrutinize all details of studies pertinent to the project on optimizing the added value of the economic minerals extracted from the black sands and to study all its aspects.

"This aims to capitalize on the opportunities offered by the discovery and extraction of the country’s natural resources while asserting the importance of the sound management and achieving the greatest economic and investment benefit from them," the spokesman noted.

The meeting also reviewed progress in efforts to establish and operate a factory for the production of veterinary vaccines.

In this regard, a map of the livestock production market in Egypt and the producers of vaccines was showcased. The discussions also tackled the general outlook proposed for the partnership with the private sector in this regard.

Sisi gave directives to immediately begin localizing the technology of manufacturing veterinary vaccines in Egypt in an integral manner, as part of the state’s strategy to provide sustainable protection for livestock from epidemic diseases. This is in addition to obtaining the capability in this field and working on achieving self-sufficiency.