The ancient mines offer clues for where to drill. Story highlights Thousands of years after the glory of ancient Egypt, explorers are searching for untapped gold reservesGold mining currently makes up 1.3% of the country's GDP, but the government hopes to grow that to 5%(CNN) Not far from the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, ancient gold mines dating back thousands of years lie abandoned deep beneath the scorched desert soil. "We are looking where they had mined gold before," says Mark Campbell, CEO of Alexander Nubia , an exploration company working in the area. "Using modern mining techniques and technology, we hope to recover a lot of the gold that they missed, because they were unable to mine it and process it." An important source of minerals during the heydays of the ancient Roman and Egyptian civilizations, the mines now have a new function -- as a guide in the search for new sources of gold in Egypt's eastern desert.

Source: CNN June 14, 2016 11:14 UTC