Gold mining has a legendary history in Ethiopia, with Ethiopian mines providing gold to the ancient Egyptian empire and possibly even King Solomon’s Mines and the Queen of Sheba. Alluvial gold production has been ongoing ever since that time, and the Asosa zone of Ethiopia could contain the oldest known gold mine in the world at 6000 years old.
Predecessors to Akobo Minerals explored the Akobo area already back in 1998-1999. Regional soil sampling gathered 635 samples, 526 of these contained visible gold when panned. This first effort also identified several gold bearing quartz veins. However until 2010 the extensive Akobo district, until a few decades ago a very sparsely populated area, had not yet been systematically explored. First in 2010 when Akobo Minerals was granted a large exploration permit covering the region did the extensive exploration work start.
Through intensive work over the past decade, Akobo Minerals has defined two areas of exploration focus – Segele and Joru. Though both are considered exciting prospects for gold, each is quite different. Segele is quite small, with high concentration of gold, while Joru covers a larger area, with a lower gold content.
All of the recent exploration on this project has been conducted by a local team of geologists and support staff, primarily comprising a group of former geologists from the Geological Survey of Ethiopia that were central in the exploration and discovery of Ethiopia’s successfully operated Lega Dembi gold mine.
