A worker has been killed and five others have been injured after a rockfall inside an underground tunnel at Egypt's Sukari gold mine, the country's largest and one of the biggest in Africa.
The deceased worker has been identified as Abdel Rahman Nabil Mahmoud, an employee of Sukari Gold Mines Company. Egypt's petroleum ministry said the five injured workers were taken to the One-Day Surgery Hospital in Marsa Alam, the Red Sea coastal town about 30 kilometres north-east of the mine, where their conditions were reported to be stable.
Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Karim Badawi ordered the Mineral Resources and Mining Industries Authority to form a committee to investigate Sunday's accident, determine its causes and review occupational health and safety procedures at the site.
Underground work in the affected area has been suspended until the committee's findings are complete and safety requirements are confirmed, the ministry said.
Sukari, located in the arid Eastern Desert some 750 kilometres south-east of Cairo, is Egypt's first and only large-scale modern gold mine. It is operated by Sukari Gold Mining Company, a 50-50 joint venture between the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority and South Africa-headquartered AngloGold Ashanti, which took over the operation in November 2024 after acquiring the mine's previous operator, the London-listed Centamin, for $2.5 billion.
The mine, in commercial production since 2010, has yielded more than six million ounces of gold and generated billions of dollars in revenue for the Egyptian state. In 2025, it produced a record 500,000 ounces, up four per cent on the previous year and worth $612 million, according to AngloGold Ashanti's earnings release.
In the first half of 2026, it produced 232,000 ounces, keeping it on track to match last year's record output.
The site accounts for the overwhelming majority of Egypt's roughly 15.8 tonnes of annual gold production, according to World Gold Council data, and its life has been extended to 2034 under a 30-year concession that Parliament approved last year.
AngloGold Ashanti also holds several exploration licences across the Eastern Desert as it seeks to expand its footprint in what industry executives regard as one of the world's most under-explored gold provinces.
Fatal accidents at Sukari are rare. AngloGold Ashanti reported no fatalities at the mine in its 2024 operational profile, which covered AngloGold Ashanti's first full year with the asset. Sunday's incident is the first publicly reported death at the site since AngloGold took over the operation.
