SUDAN is the largest country in Africa, covering about Two Million Squared Km. It falls between Latitudes 4-22 N and Longitudes 22-38 E. It is inhabited by 40 Million Population. With such big area and diversified geology which merges across the boundaries between nine countries SUDAN has a huge mineral potential yet to be evaluated and developed. The Ministry of Minerals, through the Geological Researches Authority of the SUDAN  (GRAS), the State Geological Survey, is the guardian of all metals and minerals within the lands, rivers and the continental shelf of the SUDAN . The over-riding function of the Ministry is to organize, promote and develop the mining sector and the mineral resources of the SUDAN  in order to enhance the national economy and contribute in the sustainable development. This is generally achieved through the identification and systematic inventory of the available resources as a result of geological mapping, geophysical and geochemical exploration programs. It is also engaged in co-operation with investors to assist in, and enhance, the development of identified mineral prospects. On this respect, GRAS undertakes exploration work in co-operation with international agencies, the geology of the SUDAN  is dominated by the basement complex formations that cover more than 50% of its area.

SUDAN  has a long history and a big heritage of Mining culture which go back to three thousand years when Nubians extracted gold and base metals and smelted iron to make water wells.  Mineral resources have not been fully explored as of yet but include: petroleum, natural gas, gold, silver, gold, silver, chrome, asbestos, manganese, gypsum, mica, zinc, iron, lead, uranium, copper, kaolin, cobalt, granite, nickel and tin. Jul 15th 6 of 51 ; 2014 Major Pan-African Structures in the Nubian – Arabian Shield and the foreland The Pan-African terrains dominate the geology of the country. These terrains were found to host most of the economically valuable mineral deposits, where huge mineral potentials are yet to be discovered and exploited. 

THE MINERAL WEALTH OF THE SUDAN :
Massive sulphide deposits [VMS & SEDEX] of Cu, Zn, Au, Ag, Fe, Mn, together with Cr, PGM, magnesite, talc & other trace elements.

PRECIOUS METALS:

1. Tin, Tungsten, Zirconium Aluminium.
2. Sedimentary & Igneous Iron Formations.
3. Rare Earth Elements.
4. Radio-Active Elements, Black Sands.
5. Industrial Minerals: Fluorite, White Sands. Industrial Minerals & Rocks Include: Pozzolana, Limestone, Marble, Gypsum, Mica, Kaolin, Feldspar, Kyanite, Bauxite, Wollastonite, Graphite, Potassium Salts And Barite.
6. Agro Minerals Like Phosphate, Potash, Gypsum, Zeolite, Vermiculite.
7. Gem Stones.
8. Building Materials [Igneous, Metamorphic & Sedimentary].
9. Dimension Stones.
10. Basalts

THE STRATEGY OF THE MINISTRY OF MINERALS OF THE SUDAN  IS EMBARKED ON:

1. Easing concession’s acquisition procedures.
2. Transparency.
3. Equality.
4. Data acquisition and
5. A High-Level concession agreement, to all mineral commodities of the country.

INVESTMENT IN THE MINING SERVICES:
A broad spectrum of activities that are considered to form profitable investment opportunities in SUDAN . These are: q Exploration, mineral evaluation, mining development and mine design. qInvestment in the field of providing services to companies (like drilling, feasibility studies, mineral processing & equipments etc.). qInvestment in the Field of LaboratoryRelated Industries. qInvestment in Training. q The Establishment of Smelters (copper smelter - steel -aluminum – chrome - iron), and ferrochrome industry. q Fields of investment are open for all types of mineral industry added values.

Also, the Ministry of Minerals encourages the financing firms and organizations to invest in financing mining and mining industry. q Investments are also open for: q Updating the Geological Map of the SUDAN . q Establishing a new metallogenic map of the SUDAN . q Completion of the geophysical maps of the SUDAN . q Evaluation of the mineral resources of the whole country.

CONCESSION AGREEMENT:
The concession agreement is based on the Mineral Development Act 2015 and Regulations. It covers the technical, financial, environmental and the social aspects. Investors are entitled to privileges and provisions of the Investment Encouragement Act 2015 and Amendments. Investors recover all exploration and development costs.

THE FUTURE OF MINING IN SUDAN :

1. Widening the arena of prospecting for all metals and minerals.
2. Promotion for all minerals industrial, agricultural and building materials.
3. Boost the cement industry for export.
4. Study and evaluate the white sands for creating glass industry.
5. Promotion of the clay minerals for the bentonite, ceramic, and isolators industries.
6. Increasing the geo-engineering works for upgrading the infrastructures.

ROAD MAP FOR UNLIMITED INVESTMENTS:

1. Design a practical investment strategy.
2.  Improving the concession agreement towards clear rights and duties.
3. Improving the one window-shot for quicker handling.
4. Provide encouraging Increasing the prospecting and exploration fund.
5. Upgrading the mineral industry.
6. investment attractive steps
7.  Strengthening the international relationships.
8. Encouraging the private sector to be more involved in the mineral industry.
9. Train the national technicians to support and manage the sector.
10. Train the national technicians to support and manage the sector.
11. These should lead to:
    1.  Diversification of income to enlarge the base of national economy.
    2.  Enable more exports of minerals and their industrial products.
    3.   Establish a reliable mining code.
    4.   Ideal exploitation, management and governance of the non-renewable resources. of the country’s mineral wealth.
    5.  Development of the mining rural areas.
    6.   Building intelligent cooperation for technology transfer.
    7.  Attract more capital and investments in the mining field.
    8.  Develop and modernize the mining areas in order to minimize the rush towards big cities.
    1.  Adopt new technologies and Train the minors to upgrade production and hence competition.

ADVANTAGES OF THE SUDAN ESE MINING SECTOR:

1. The government established a special ministry.
2. Stability of regime and policies.
3. Application of free market system.
4. Updating of laws and regulations and easing of procedures.
5. Justice, equality, transparency, guarantee of both individual and special ownership.
6. Availability of information to all.
7. Encouraging researches at all levels.
8. Infrastructure is developing, and the environment of investment is encouraging.

In 1990 the mining industry accounted for less than 1 percent of the total GDP. A wide range of minerals existed in SUDAN  , but the size of reserves had not been determined in most cases. The discovery of commercially exploitable quantities of petroleum in the late 1970s offered some hope that the sector would play an increased role in the economy in the future. However, from February 1984, some months after concessions were allotted, oil exploration operations had been suspended in the south, where the largest deposits were located, as a result of the region's security problems. Nonhydrocarbon minerals of actual or potential commercial value included gold, chrome, copper, iron, manganese, asbestos, gypsum, mica, limestone, marble, and uranium. Gold had been mined in the Red Sea Hills since pharaonic times. Between 1900 and 1954, several British enterprises worked gold mines in the area, and extracted a considerable quantity of the metal--one mine alone reportedly produced three tons of gold between 1924 and 1936. Gold also has been mined along the borders between SUDAN   and Uganda and Zaire, but not in commercially profitable amounts. During the 1970s, the government's Geological Survey Administration located more than fifty potential gold-producing sites in different parts of the country. Several joint ventures between the SUDAN  ese Mining Corporation, a government enterprise, and foreign companies were launched in the 1980s; these undertakings produced gold at Gebeit and several other mines near the Red Sea Hills beginning in 1987. In 1988, about 78,000 metric kilograms of gold ore were mined in SUDAN  . In late 1990, SUDAN   and two French mining companies formed a joint venture company to exploit gold reserves in the Khawr Ariab wadi in the Red Sea Hills.

Chrome ore was mined in the Ingessana Hills in Al Awsat. In the late 1970s, output was reportedly more than 20,000 tons a year, of which more than four-fifths were produced by the Ingessana Hills Mines Corporation, a subsidiary of SUDAN  ese Mining Corporation. A private operation produced the remainder. The ore was exported, chiefly to Japan and Western Europe. In the 1980s, the establishment of ferrochrome processing facilities had been discussed with Japanese interests, but the estimated 700,000 tons of reserves were insufficient for profitable longterm operations. By 1983, when the civil war brought a halt to all production in the Ingessana Hills, chrome production had declined about 50 percent to only 10,000 tons per year. In 1988, production of chromium ore was estimated at 5,000 metric tons. Asbestos had also been found in the Ingessana Hills area. It was reportedly of good commercial grade, and mining possibilities were under study by a Canadian subsidiary of the United States firm of Johns-Manville. A small pilot extraction plant had been built, but larger scale operations were dependent on locating adequate reserves and on the ending of the civil war.

Large gypsum deposits, estimated to contain reserves of 220 million tons, were found along the Red Sea coast. Reportedly of high purity, the ore was mined mainly north of Port SUDAN  . In the late 1980s, about 20,000 tons were produced annually, about 6,000 tons by the SUDAN  ese Mining Corporation and the remainder by private operations. Gypsum was used mostly in the production of cement. Limestone, found in substantial quantities in SUDAN  , was mined both for use in making cement and for other construction materials. Marble was also quarried for the latter purpose.

There has been some commercial mining of mica, exploitable deposits of which had been located in Ash Shamali Province by a UN mineral survey team between 1968 and 1972. The SUDAN  ese Mining Corporation produced about 1,000 tons of scrap mica in FY 1978, but output reportedly slumped thereafter to about 400 tons annually. Manganese and iron ore, of which several large deposits exist in different parts of the country, have been mined at times but only on a small basis by international standards. There were more than 500 million tons of iron ore deposits in the Fodikwan area of the Red Sea Hills, and beginning in the late 1980s a project had been planned to produce between 120,000 and 200,000 tons a month. Exploitation of SUDAN  's mineral deposits, however, depended in large part on foreign companies willing to undertake such risks in the face of the country's mounting problems, and on international market factors.

Uranium ores have been discovered in the area of the Nuba Mountains and at Hufrat an Nahas in southern Kurdufan. Minex Company of the United States obtained a 36,000-square-kilometer exploratory concession in the Kurdufan area in 1977, and the concession was increased to 48,000 square kilometers in 1979. Uranium reserves are also believed to exist near the western borders with Chad and Central African Republic. Another potential source of mineral wealth was the Red Sea bed. In 1974 officials established a joint SUDAN  ese-Saudi Arabian agency to develop those resources, which included zinc, silver, copper, and other minerals. Explorations below the 2,000-meter mark have indicated that large quantities of the minerals are present, but as of 1990 no actual extraction had been undertaken.