UAE mineral giant eyes Pakistani mining venture

NT to invest around Rs2.5b in establishing mineral-based business in Pakistan

KARACHI:

The United Arab Emirate’s largest raw and value-added mineral supplier and importer, National Trust (NT), has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Pakistani firm to develop a strategic partnership with an investment of 30 million UAE Dirham to mine, acquire, and process aluminium ore in Punjab and potentially export it to the Middle East.

In a notification to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), Kohinoor Spinning Mills Limited (KSML) announced the development on Monday, stating, “We are in serious discussions with UAE and Pakistan-based stakeholders to transform the (textile) company into a mining and mineral technology company as KOMS is strategically located near mineral reservoirs and possesses a vast area of 81.5 acres (652 Kanals) of freehold land.”

NT plans to invest approximately 30 million UAE Dirham (around Rs2.5 billion) in establishing a raw and value-added mineral-based business in Pakistan.

For this purpose, KOSM intends to install an Ore Beneficiation Plant with the sponsorship of NT in their current facility to process bauxite (aluminium ore) to improve its purity, and it may take only six to eight months to be ready as NT shall arrange all technical and procurement support in this regard.

KOMS will be a partner in this project, managing and allocating its facilities in Chakwal and sorting all government approvals.

“The board of directors has agreed to pursue the strategic partnership with The National Trust Holdings, Abu Dhabi, UAE through its subsidiary EMNOC... has authorised its CEO to execute and implement this project,” the local company said in the notification.

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Bauxite (aluminium ore) is available in excess quantity in the Khushab area and is mainly used by aluminium refineries worldwide to produce aluminium. “NT and KOMS have done complete ground research and laboratory surveys through SGS Pakistan.”

Apart from bauxite, Pakistan has reserves of barite, calcium fluoride (fluorspar), copper, phosphate, etc., and NT has also shown interest in procuring these minerals through KOMS.

The local company, located in Chakwal and in close proximity to the Khushab area, has plans to secure leases for some mines in this region where there are millions of tonnes of bauxite reserves.

NT has been importing minerals mainly from Africa and other countries but has never sourced them from Pakistan. It is one of the largest raw and value-added mineral suppliers and importers in the UAE, supplying well-known companies in the GCC, including Emirates Gulf Aluminium and Adnoc.

KOMS has also installed a 2MW solar power plant with the support of a Singapore-based green technology fund, it added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2023.

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