Egypt's ASEC Company for Mining (ASCOM) said on Sunday it had found two gold mining targets in an Ethiopian concession with enough tonnage and grade potential to suggest an economic discovery is possible. ASCOM plans to start drilling on the 800-square-kilometer Asosa concession in Western Ethiopia in October, it said in a statement. The company, 39-percent owned by Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital, also said preliminary satellite investigations had identified "numerous" exploration targets in its 3,000-square-kilometer concession in Sudan. ASCOM has mining and other operations in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Algeria in addition to Ethiopia and Sudan. ASCOM is a platform company of private equity firm Citadel Capital, which has a 39.22 percent stake. “The last 12 months have seen some tremendous progress as ASCOM has secured excellent concessions in known gold regions in Africa,” said ASCOM Precious Metals Mining (APM) Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Crichton. ASCOM currently has five concessions in Ethiopia and has recently secured precious metals exploration rights on a 3,000-square-kilometer concession in Sudan's Blue Nile State. ASCOM subsidiary APM has also reported promising results in Sudan. Preliminary remote sensing satellite investigations have already been completed and numerous exploration targets have been identified.
