Oman secures $400m loan for copper mining project

Oman has secured new financing for its largest copper mining development yet, which is set to begin production next year. 

Qatar-based Ahlibank raised an OMR154 million ($400 million) loan for state-backed Minerals Development Oman (MDO) through a mix of conventional and Islamic financing.

The funding involved Ahlibank and Ahli Islamic, as well as a group of local financial institutions, the lender said in a statement. The loan terms were not released.

The financing follows ground-breaking at the Mazoon copper project in Yanqul, located in the country’s northwest.  

The project covers 20 square kilometres and aims to produce around 115,000 tonnes of copper concentrate annually, with a purity of 21.5 percent, based on confirmed reserves of 22.9 million tonnes of copper ore. 

Copper concentrate production is expected to commence in 2027.

Once operational, the project will play a central role in meeting rising global demand for copper and strengthen Oman’s position as a major producer of high-quality concentrate.

In May 2025, MDO subsidiary Mazoon Mining secured $270 million from local and regional banks and signed several construction and service contracts with Omani contractors to begin developing the project.

“MDO has already invested more than $2 billion in the last five years in 15 different concessions,” Ahmed Al Saidi, head of exploration at Fahud Minerals Establishment, told AGBI at the time.

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MDO operates 14 concession areas across Oman and has found almost 500,000 tonnes of chromite, 111 million tonnes of high-purity silica and 242 million tonnes of dolomite.

The price of copper has risen by about a third in the last year. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose nearly 3 percent to 103,200 yuan ($14,793) per metric tonne by 01:51 GMT on Monday. It hit a record high at 105,500 yuan on January 6, Reuters reported.

Copper is used in power, construction and manufacturing. The price gained further on a package of incentives issued by China last week to boost domestic demand and a drop in production last year at the main state-owned operator in Chile.