Jordan's Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Saleh Kharabsheh launched Saturday a project to explore lead, zinc, and gold in the Samrat Teibah area in Wadi Araba.
Jordan News Agency (Petra) quoted Kharabsheh as saying that the Ministry of Energy is carrying out the project within the framework of a national mining project launched by the ministry in early 2021 to explore mineral wealth in the Kingdom's lands within the Nubian Arabian Shield, an area rich in minerals.
The minister hoped that the mining sector would play an essential role in the economic development process, especially since such projects are in areas that need development and the creation of more job opportunities.
The Samrat Teibah project is expected to finish by this year's end before marketing it as an investment opportunity.
Kharabsheh said that the ministry is signing a memorandum of understanding with a company to exploit eastern phosphate ores and is studying investment requests in potash in the Dead Sea.
He noted that mining projects require time to collect samples, analyze them, and prepare economic feasibility studies for investment.
Kharabsheh stressed that the ministry continues implementing such projects, given their impact on the national economy and its added economic value.
Director of Studies at the Ministry of Energy Hisham al-Zyoud said that seven exploratory wells were drilled within the region, which showed positive results, noting work will continue to dig a group of wells as well.
He noted that preliminary results of samples collected by the ministry's team showed indications of gold ratios in the valleys samples reaching 20 parts per billion (ppb), while zinc concentrations exceeding 1,000 parts of gas per million parts of air (ppm), which is equivalent to a kilogram of metal concentrated in a ton of river sediment.
Zyoud added that the lead metal exceeded 170 ppm, equivalent to 170 concentrated grams of a ton of sediment.
