On 6 May 2026, Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1440 of 2026 was published in the Official Gazette, amending several provisions of the executive regulations of the mineral resources law no. 198 of 2014 (the “Mining Law”) issued by prime ministerial decree no. 108 of 2020 (the “Old ER”). The amendments became effective on the day following their publication, i.e., 7 May 2026 (the “New ER”).
The amendments introduce a broad set of regulatory, financial, and operational changes affecting mining, quarrying and saltworks activities in Egypt. The changes mainly address licensing procedures, rental values, royalty rates, competent authority approvals, laboratory licensing, and additional operational areas required for mining-related activities.
The amended Article 1 clarifies that the New ER apply not only to exploration and exploitation licences for mines, quarries and saltworks, but also to licences for laboratories conducting analysis of rocks and minerals, quarry and saltworks materials, which implement the Mining Law’s existing framework.
The amended Article 1 also confirms that rentals and royalties relating to mines, quarries and saltworks shall accrue to the State Treasury.
The Old ER already required Ministry of Defence approval before licences were issued. Under Article 8, the New ER adds a requirement to complete the necessary coordination for the approval of the Armed Forces Operations Authority, to review the impact on State defence, formalising a requirement previously observed in practice.. It also expands the list of restricted areas requiring approvals for licence issuance to include public properties connected to water resources and irrigation, areas near nuclear installations, and areas known to potentially contain radioactive materials.
Importantly, the relevant authorities must respond to approval or coordination requests within thirty (30) days from the submission of all required documents.
The amended Article 11 permits the Mineral Resources and Mining Industries Authority (the “MRMIA”) to establish or participate in specialised companies conducting exploration, exploitation and mining activities for mines, quarries and saltworks inside or outside Egypt.
Public capital participation in such companies must not be less than 10% (ten per cent), without prejudice to concession agreements issued by law, while under the Old ER, public capital participation in companies established or participated in by the MRMIA for mining activities could not be less than 25% (twenty-five per cent).
The amended Article 14 introduces the Egypt Mining Portal as an electronic platform for submitting exploration licence applications, while maintaining manual submission as an available option.
This supports the broader digitalisation of mining licensing procedures, although the substantive document and approval requirements remain in place.
The amendments under Article 19 revise the renewal mechanics for exploration licences. While the Old ER required the licensee to submit the renewal application at least six (6) months before the expiry of the licence, the amended Article 19 requires only that the renewal application be submitted before the licence expires, without the prior six-month advance requirement.
The amendments also increase the minimum annual exploration expenditure from four (4) times to ten (10) times the applicable annual rental value, while allowing excess expenditure incurred in one (1) exploration period to be credited against the minimum expenditure required in subsequent exploration periods, subject to satisfying the relevant technical obligations.
The Old ER applied flat annual advance rental values per km² for each exploration period. The New ER replaces this with a tiered structure based on the size of the exploration area for each exploration period: one (1) km² to sixteen (16) km², seventeen (17) km² to one hundred and seventy-five (175) km², and areas exceeding one hundred and seventy-five (175) km².
For areas from one (1) km² to sixteen (16) km², annual advance rentals range from EGP 4,300 (four thousand three hundred Egyptian pounds) per km² in the first exploration period to EGP 17,200 (seventeen thousand two hundred Egyptian pounds) per km² in the fourth exploration period.
For areas from seventeen (17) km² to one hundred and seventy-five (175) km², annual advance rentals range from EGP 2,580 (two thousand five hundred and eighty Egyptian pounds) per km² to EGP 12,900 (twelve thousand nine hundred Egyptian pounds) per km².
For areas exceeding one hundred and seventy-five (175) km², annual advance rentals range from EGP 1,720 (one thousand seven hundred and twenty Egyptian pounds) per km² to EGP 11,180 (eleven thousand one hundred and eighty Egyptian pounds) per km².
In general, the new rental values are lower than the previous flat rates, particularly for larger areas. However, these should be considered alongside the increased minimum expenditure obligation, as lower rental values do not necessarily result in a lower overall exploration commitment.
Under the Old ER, the ability to add minerals to an exploration or exploitation licence was mainly linked to cases where the new mineral was mixed with the licensed mineral and could not be extracted separately. The New ER is broader under Articles 20 and 30, whereby a licensee may add any ores or mineral materials to the relevant licence, subject to the MRMIA’s Board approval.
For exploitation licences, the licensee must pay the applicable royalty on the annual production of the added mineral, but no additional rent is payable for the added mineral.
The amended Article 31 increases the annual rent for exploitation licences from EGP 25,000 (twenty-five thousand Egyptian pounds) per km² to EGP 35,000 (thirty-five thousand Egyptian pounds) per km². The rent for white sand remains EGP 9 (nine Egyptian pounds) per square metre, and the New ER introduces a specific annual rent of EGP 1 (one Egyptian pound) per square metre for kaolinitic sand or sandy kaolin.
The amended Article 32 provides that any unlisted ore or mineral is subject to a 6% (six per cent) royalty.
The New ER also provides that local market prices for royalty calculation are determined by a committee formed by the MRMIA’s Chairman, rather than by a committee formed by the competent minister under the Old ER.
The amended Article 85 revises the rental values for areas leased outside the exploration or exploitation area for facilities, buildings, storage, industrial purposes, utilities, or related operational needs.
The annual rental is:
The amendments also reduce the portion of the rental value allocated to the relevant governorate from 25% (twenty-five per cent) to 15% (fifteen per cent).
Consistent with the Mining Law, which provides that laboratories analysing rocks and minerals, quarry and saltworks materials must be licensed by the MRMIA, the New ER introduces the detailed licensing framework for such laboratories.
Article 107 of the New ER regulates the application process and sets operational standards for licensed laboratories, including:
On oversight and inspection, the MRMIA may carry out periodic or surprise inspections to verify compliance, withdraw samples to check the accuracy of results, and issue written notices requiring violations to be remedied within a period determined by the MRMIA. In cases of serious violations, result manipulation, or breach of data confidentiality, the MRMIA may withdraw the licence.
The licence is valid for three (3) years and renewable following a comprehensive review. Issuance fees are EGP 1,000,000 (one million Egyptian pounds) for sample preparation laboratories and EGP 3,000,000 (three million Egyptian pounds) for full analytical laboratories. Renewal fees are EGP 500,000 (five hundred thousand Egyptian pounds) and EGP 1,000,000 (one million Egyptian pounds), respectively.
Laboratories may not advertise their services or commence activities before obtaining the licence.
The New ER amends the existing mining framework to deliver a combination of investment facilitation and tighter fiscal and compliance controls. In practical terms, the amendments make the licensing process more structured, introduce clearer financial obligations for exploration and exploitation activities, and expand the MRMIA’s oversight role, particularly in relation to added minerals, laboratory licensing, and ancillary operational areas.
On the investment side, the reduction of the minimum public capital participation threshold to 10% (ten per cent) opens new structuring options for joint ventures with the MRMIA, the broadened mineral add-on rights provide greater project flexibility, and the Egypt Mining Portal digitalises the application process.
While some changes are procedural, such as the introduction of the Egypt Mining Portal and updated approval mechanics, others may directly affect project costs, including the tenfold increase in minimum exploration expenditure, higher exploitation rent, increased ancillary area rentals and the expanded scope of the MRMIA’s oversight, including a new laboratory licensing regime, all of which raise the bar for operational compliance.
Clients with active or planned mining projects should assess how the revised expenditure commitments, royalty mechanics and ancillary area ratios interact with their project economics and licence structures.
The contributors to this article are Malak Khalil, Partner – Head of EENR, Sadeem Abdelsalam, Managing Associate, and Zeina Jowett, Associate.
