Copper reserves in Wadi Abu Khashiba range between 600,000 and 1.5m tonnes — Kharabsheh

AMMAN — Exploration works for copper conducted by Solvest Trade and Industry Limited Company in the Wadi Abu Khashiba area showed a copper reserve of 175,000 tonnes, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Saleh Kharabsheh said on Wednesday.

In a press statement, cited by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, the minister said that data it had received from the company show “considerable” reserves of raw copper with good concentrations, adding that estimates show that the geological reserves range between 600,000 and 1.5 million tonnes.

Reaching an executive agreement with the company will increase these amounts to threefold during mining works, Kharabsheh added.

As for copper exploration in the Fifa Valley, he said that studies showed resemblance of rocks and raw copper within the Dana area, which was confirmed by the results of the samples.

Regarding gold exploration that is implemented by Solvest at the Wadi Abu Khashiba area, the minister said that the company, following several studies, identified gold locations in an area with a length of 1.5 kilometres and a width of 12 metres with concentration rates ranging between 0.1 gramme per tonne and 30 grammes per tonne.

The company, by the end of a 12-month memo it signed with the ministry in April, expects to reach a profitable reserve of 60 ounces of gold, with the possibility of doubling this number through intensifying studies and expanding the mining area. 

Under the memo, the exploration area will extend over an area of 20 square kilometres at the Wadi Abu Khashiba region, and 28 square kilometres over the Fifa Valley.

If the project is proven feasible, the company will submit a preliminary economic feasibility study that includes the company's plan for the subsequent steps towards the development phase, the minister said during the signing ceremony. 

He also noted that in the event the company decides to proceed with the next stages, the government will enter a partnership agreement with the company, which would require an approval of a special law.