MUSCAT: A government-backed mining technology company says it is preparing to commence copper and gold production from its brownfield assets that were once at the heart of the commercial success of state-owned Oman Mining Company (OMCO) nearly three decades ago.

Muscat-based Green Tech Mining & Services LLC (GTMS) was established by OMCO in 2018 to support the introduction of green mining technologies with the goal of, among other things, remediating OMCO-run copper and gold mine sites in Suhar and Yanqul.

OMCO holds a 49 per cent stake in GTMS, while the remaining 51 per cent is owned by BPG Precious Metals Storage, a Vienna-based commodity fund listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange.

Having spent the last couple of years studying the legacy sites and conducting pilots as well, Green Tech Mining says it is now gearing up for the commercial phase of its operations.

Residual assets targeted for processing based on the company’s green mining technologies are sizable, says Ernst Grissemann, CEO of Green Tech Mining & Services.

“We have already built a gold production facility, and our mineral assets are in the Suhar area, where we own 15 million metric tonnes of copper tailings and 3 million metric tonnes of low-grade stockpiles of copper ore. We also have one in Yanqul, where we have about 1.3 million metric tonnes of gold tailings. Additionally, we own a vast amount of contaminated groundwater containing copper and gold and various other metals in the Suhar area and in Yanqul.”

Sharing these details with The Energy Year (formerly The Oil & Gas Year), Grissemann said investments are being made in a copper tailings remediation plant in Suhar.

Construction of the facility is anticipated to take about 12 months with a further six months for commissioning, paving the way for full production capacity soon thereafter.

Also envisioned is a remediation plant for gold tailings at Yanqul, alongside a refurbished gold production plant that is currently being moved from OMCO’s Suhar site to Yanqul, he said.

Helping jumpstart the company’s operations are the results of a pilot project conducted by Green Mining Tech at the Suhar site. Grissemann explained: “Following the results of the pilot plant project, which we carried out from the beginning of 2019 to mid-2020, we will be able to produce copper from contaminated groundwater in the old mining pits and collapsed mines starting from the end of 2023. In 2024, we should also start producing gold.”

Launched in 1981 to revive Oman’s millennia-old copper mining industry, OMCO produced an estimated 143,000 tonnes of copper cathode and gold as a byproduct from 1983 to 1994. But the mining operations spawned large contaminations deemed harmful to humans, animals and the environment. Green Tech Mining’s primary mandate is to deploy modern technologies to, among other things, remediate the mining residuals and reprocess the tailings, as well as recycling contaminated groundwater at these sites.

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