The geological potential to find significant metallic minerals in Oman is very high, Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, minister of commerce and industry, told the  

The geological potential to find significant metallic minerals in Oman is very high, Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, minister of commerce and industry, told the Times of Oman in an interview as part of the July 23rd celebrations.

He also expected the contribution of the minerals sector to rise from 0.6 per cent (in 1995) to around 2 per cent in 2020. Maqbool bin Ali Sultan took a quick glance of the country's promising minerals sector. The minister revealed that the recent efforts to tap the precious mineral resources of Oman have been quite successful.

For instance, Al Bishara prospect in both Al Dhahira region contains precious metals, especially gold, in both a lower sulphide level and an upper gossanous level.

"We have begun exploiting these resources with the gossanous ore in November last year at a production rate of 600 to 800kg a year.

"The current ore will last for five to six years, but exploration will continue to discover more ore in the vicinity of Al Bishara in order to extend the life of the project," Maqbool said.

Referring to the high potential in finding metallic minerals here, he said: "Locating new deposits will depend on the intensity and continuity of exploration efforts and the application of the latest techniques.

"In recent years, the National Mining Company has been able to locate new copper deposits and conduct a feasibility study on them. The results were encouraging."

In fact, the company is planning to start production this year, he added.

The company has also negotiated a deal with Oman Mining Company to refurbish their concentrator and restart it again to produce copper concentrate, which would then be smelted and refined at OMCO's own facilities in Wadi Al Jizzi, thus reviving their operations (mining, concentrating, smelting and refining) and bringing them back in full swing.

"The ministry, encouraged by the recent upsurge in copper prices, is currently reviewing the feasibility study — of Al Raki and Hayl As-Safil copper-gold deposits — which was conducted a few years back at a time when the world economy experiences a downturn and metal prices were low," Maqbool said.

"Unfortunately, no additional metallic deposits were located in the past few years. "This is because metal prices were low and exploration has not been carried out by the private sector. Exploration and discovery go hand in hand," the minister replied to a question.

"However, exploration in the field of industrial rocks and minerals has revealed very encouraging results and new deposits have been discovered," he noted.

Asked whether any new sulphides or gold deposits have been found using the new exploration (of the joint DGML, OMCO and ECL collaboration model, the minister said: "The aim of this project is not to locate new deposits but to understand how these deposits form, i.e. to fully understand their genesis. The results thus obtained will help in shaping up the right methodology and techniques to be used in locating new deposits.

"We have to understand some gossans do have high content of gold and others not, before we can fully exploit the hundreds of gossans, which crop out in the volcanic belt of the Omani Ophiolite."

The minister further added that the future vision of the Omani economy has targeted raising the minerals sector contribution from 0.6 per cent in 1995 to around 2 per cent in 2020.

The mineral sector's objectives, as set in the sixth development plan, are:

l achieving an annual growth rate of 4.5 per cent

l realising an annual 10 per cent growth rate in Omani employment

l encouraging foreign and national development in the sector

l increasing the degree of linkages between the industry and minerals sectors

l maintaining regional balance.