• Home
• /
• Business

Gold refinery at DMCC to open in six months

International gold refining standard is coming to Dubai with three high-tech refineries being set up at the Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre (DMCC) poised to boost the City of Golds refining capacity to a significant level.

According to industry sources, the combined refining capacity of the three refineries in the initial phase would be 300 metric tonnes per year which can go up to 500 tonnes at a later stage. "The setting up of the three refineries signals the arrival of standard gold refining concept that will speed up the process to make Dubai a good delivery centre," the source said.

The first refinery to go on stream within six months at the DMCC is the 100 metric tonne Al Ghurair Giga Gold (GGG) refinery being set up at a cost of Dh50 million. Owned by the Al Ghurair group, the refinery is a joint venture with Haji Muhammad Rafiq as the managing director of the project. Al Ghurair has a 51 per cent stake in the refinery which is being built on 40,000 square metre area at DMCC.

The GGG Refinery, being set up in technological collaboration with Mintek of South Africa, will initially outsource gold bricks of 96.5 purity from South Africa and refine them into 99.9 purity gold. It will also be resorting to scrap supplies sourced locally and from the region.

The other two refineries being set up are by ARY Group, and Emirates Gold, both existing players who would be relocating to the DMCC with capacity additions to 100 tonnes. ARY has its refinery now located in Sharjah, and Emirates Gold in Dubai.

The proposed Dh50 million ARY Aurum Plus will include automated equipment for minting coins, small and large bullion bars, detailed crafting, cutting and polishing of 18-carat, 20-carat and 22-carat gold jewellery.

A source close to GGG refinery said the promoters are pondering an entry into the mining sector in South Africa and Russia to meet the refining capacity. According to Tawfique Abdullah, CEO of DMCC, a cluster of manufacturing units would enhance the performance of the precious metal industry since no one in the jewellery business can do everything in the value chain with perfection. "Specialisation needs clustering, and for clustering there needs to be an infrastructure in place. And that is what DMCC is putting in place."