Improving mutual payments: Sudan ‘presents’ Belarus with another gold mining site

Belarusian companies will mine gold in Sudan together with local specialists, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said during Monday’s talks with his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir.

“In order to improve mutual payments in trade we agreed that Belarusian companies will mine gold on your territory because your soil is rich in gold. I would like to thank you for making a decision to allocate us the second site for gold mining,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes Lukashenka.

The Sudanese side promised to allocate this site to Belarus in the near future, Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Andrey Khudyk told journalists. It is located closer to the Nile River, and, according to the preliminary estimates, might be gold-bearing especially given the close proximity of water, the official said.

The minister failed to specify on what conditions Belarus would mine gold. ‘It is to early to speak of any particular conditions,’ he stressed.

During the talks, the sides agreed on Belarus’ establishing a machine building centre in Sudan, where Belarusians tractors and vehicles will be assembled. Moreover, our country is expected to construct milk farms and greenhouse facilities there.

According to the presidential press service, the presidents announced the mutual cooperation in the medical, bank and humanitarian fields. Belarus also expressed readiness to open its embassy in Sudan.

belsat.eu, following BelTA