South Sudan has awarded provisional licences to two companies for mineral exploration as it attempts to diversify the economy away from oil, a government official told Reuters on Tuesday. South Sudan is rich in gold and also probably has reserves of other minerals such as copper, uranium and clay which it hopes to exploit with the help of investors. Arkangelo Okwang Oler, the director of mining in the national ministry of petroleum and mining, said the licences were awarded to South African firm New Kush and Equator Gold, whose parent company is incorporated in Jersey. The country, one of the world's least developed countries after decades of civil war and which seceded from Sudan in 2011, wants to attract mining investment to kickstart development.