Egypt has discovered a gold deposit estimated at more than one million ounces in the country's southeast, the petroleum ministry said Tuesday.

"The discovery .... is worth over $1 billion in investments over the next 10 years," the ministry said in a statement. The deposit was found in the mineral-rich Eastern Desert on a mining concession run by the state-owned Shalateen Mining Company.

Cairo issued new mining regulations at the start of the year in a move that aims to attract foreign companies. Canadian firm Aton Resources secured an Egyptian mining licence in February -- the first issued in a decade.