A helicopter belonging to an Israeli company at Juba International Airport - Courtesy

A helicopter belonging to an Israeli company has arrived in Juba for the exploration of minerals in Kajo-Keji County of Central Equatoria state.

This came as the government is set to kick-start mineral exploration in Kajo-Keji County with the help of an Israeli company.

The Israeli company – Dowar licensed by the national government on Tuesday, August 29, brought to Juba a helicopter to conduct a digital survey and mapping of minerals in the area.

The Undersecretary in the Ministry of Mining, Dr. Cosmas Pitia Kujjo stated that the move is to know the amount of minerals South Sudan has.

“We are here with an Israel company that is licensed in South Sudan to carry out exploration activities and the company is named Dowar, and this is the beginning of their exploration work,” Dr Pitia told stated-owned TV.

“They brought this chopper to do an urban survey, and this is what we want to happen in our country,” he said.

“Our minerals to be mapped so that we know the type of mineral we have where are they then we know the mount we have.”

Dr Pitia says South Sudan is endowed with over 22 minerals, but their exact locations and quantity are yet to be mapped out.

On his part, the Director of Dewar company identified only as Captain David says they will collect samples of the minerals and take them to Israel for lab testing.

“We are here for the exploration of minerals in Kajo-Keji and it will be the first stage We shall take some samples from the ground and we are going to test them in our labs in Israel,” said Captain David.  “We are going to verify everything to find good minerals,” he added.

In July this year, the Ministry of Mining signed a deal with a Russian company to identify and create a digital mapping for minerals in the country.

The agreement was reached at the sideline meeting of the recent two-day Africa-Russian summit in Moscow.

This came after the Ministry of Petroleum purchased two aircraft in May this year to identify and locate oil reserves in the country.