News

HFI is pleased to be appointed as legal advisors to Seagull Petroleum & Mining, a new venture launched by Hesham El-Meligy and Brian Smart, targeting gold mining ventures in former Equinor executive El-Heligy’s home country of Egypt. Fellow Scot and petroleum engineer, Smart led the expansion of Heriot-Watt University into the Middle East in the mid-2000s.

Oxford Business Group’s Egypt Petroleum & Mining Focus Report, published last month, puts the opportunity in focus: “The mining sector in Egypt is set to be one of the fastest-growing and most strategic sectors of the decade, with over 40 government initiatives in place to attract greater investment in mining under the country’s overarching plan through to 2030.”

The Arabian-Nubian Shield on the Red Sea which expands from the Gulf of Suez in Lower Egypt to Eritrea and Ethiopia in the south is estimated to have significant gold deposits. “With the formation significantly under-explored, Egypt has the opportunity to leverage its natural resources there to make the country a leading minerals producer.”