Strategic Georesources in Egypt: Geology, Exploitation, Benefits, Environmental Impacts and Sustainable Development

This book addresses the strategic georesources in Egypt in terms of their geologic settings, exploitation, environmental impacts, and sustainable development. These resources are developed in a wide variety of tectonic settings, ranging from compressional, transpressional, transtensional, wrenching, to extensional. Some of them are related to specific depositional environments. A particular attention is given to the added values and economic importance of these resources. This book is aimed at young geoscientists, established researchers, and other professionals interested in geoscientists, especially those active in economic geology and related multidisciplines. It contains up-to-date basic materials, recent basic references and thematic maps, as well as valuable data that are rapidly accumulated in the last few decades about georesources in Egypt. Book chapters are authored by influential scholars and well-known scientists working in both academia and research institutions. Some chapters explore precious metals (e.g., gold, platinum group metals), placer mineral deposits in the Egyptian Eastern Desert and Sinai, and phosphate deposits in the Eastern and Western Deserts, as well as the Nile Valley. Others demonstrate building and construction raw materials, along with ceramic and porcelain raw materials. Fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) as a non-renewable source of energy in Egypt are also presented. Characteristics and industrial applications of white sand in Sinai Peninsula and black sand deposits as a substantial reserve for heavy minerals in Egypt are given more attention. Besides, rare earth elements, niobium-tantalum mineralization and associated placers, and beryllium mineralization are the subject matter of details in a specific chapters. Strategic metals and ore deposits hosted in mafic-ultamafic lithologies and granitic pegmatites such as titanium ore deposits, Cr- and Cu-Ni±Co ore deposits, and radioelements are examined. Also, Phanerozoic-related ore deposits such as lead-zinc ore deposits, manganese ore deposits, and iron ore deposits in Egypt and water resources are highlighted. The last chapters provide a state of the art on the application of GIS, remote sensing, and geophysical methods in exploring strategic georesources in Egypt.