KEFI Gold and Copper’s Saudi Arabian joint venture has approved the first stage of development at the Jibal Qutman Gold Project, subject to completion of remaining procedural requirements.
Gold and Minerals Company Limited, or GMCO, has approved the approximately US$87 million capital development programme for Stage 1 of Jibal Qutman. Development is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, with the principal outstanding requirement being the granting of a mining licence by the newly appointed Saudi Arabian Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources.
KEFI holds a 13% interest in GMCO, while long-standing Saudi partner ARTAR holds the remaining 87%. Jibal Qutman is described as GMCO’s first development within its Saudi Arabian portfolio, which has aggregate mineral resources of about 4.0 million ounces of gold equivalent.
The wider portfolio includes the Jibal Qutman Gold Project and the Hawiah Copper-Gold Project, both of which are expected to be developed in stages. GMCO’s longer-term production target for the Saudi Arabian portfolio is in the order of 350,000 ounces of gold and gold equivalent a year.
Project details
Jibal Qutman Stage 1 is an oxide-ore gold development using conventional carbon-in-leach processing. Based on the definitive feasibility study, it is expected to recover about 258,000 ounces of gold over an estimated seven-year operating period.
The company’s illustrative economics show a post-tax net present value at a 5% discount rate of US$141 million at a gold price of US$3,000 per ounce, rising to US$275 million at US$5,000 per ounce. The corresponding internal rate of return is estimated at 23% and 60% respectively.
Other figures in the project summary include revenue of US$800 million at US$3,000 gold and US$1.317 billion at US$5,000 gold, with net cash generated of US$264 million and US$627 million respectively. The table also gives a breakeven gold price of US$1,871 per ounce.
Funding and ownership
The proposed financing structure envisages at least half of the initial development capital being provided through equity contributions from GMCO’s shareholders, with the balance coming from other financing arrangements. On that basis, the anticipated initial equity contributions are about US$38 million from ARTAR and about US$6 million from KEFI.
KEFI said it retains flexibility to participate in future equity funding requirements or accept proportionate dilution of its GMCO shareholding. GMCO operates with a stand-alone management and operating structure, with shareholder oversight.
Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, KEFI’s executive chairman, described the conditional approval of Jibal Qutman Stage 1 as an important milestone for GMCO and for KEFI’s interests in Saudi Arabia. He added that the wider significance of the project lies in establishing the first producing operation within GMCO’s portfolio of gold and copper assets.
He also said KEFI’s interest in GMCO provides exposure to a significant and growing Saudi Arabian mining business alongside its principal development activities in Ethiopia. The statement noted that KEFI’s Ethiopian and Saudi development pipeline presents a pathway to a beneficial interest in combined production of 205,000 ounces of gold and gold equivalent.
Broader Saudi Arabian pipeline
Jibal Qutman Stage 1 is intended to provide an operating and financial platform for further development across GMCO’s portfolio. The company expects cash flows from the initial operation to support exploration and sequential project development.
The next anticipated stage is Jibal Qutman Stage 2, targeting sulphide gold resources. This is expected to be followed by the initial development of oxide resources at Hawiah and, later, underground mining of Hawiah’s sulphide resources.
KEFI said GMCO’s aggregate mineral resources are approximately twice the scale of the mineral resources at KEFI’s Tulu Kapi Gold Project in Ethiopia. The company also said the development of the Saudi Arabian portfolio offers a way to diversify future production and earnings across multiple projects and jurisdictions.
Alongside the project update, the announcement repeated mineral resource estimates previously announced for Hawiah and Jibal Qutman. The 2025 Hawiah estimate is classified across indicated and inferred open-pit and underground categories, while the 2025 Jibal Qutman estimate totals 37.0 million tonnes at 0.76 grams per tonne gold, containing 902,000 ounces of gold. Of that total, 13.2 million tonnes are oxide resources containing 318,000 ounces of gold.
The statement also sets out gold equivalency calculations used for the GMCO portfolio, and says the figures are provided for illustration to allow comparison between deposits where varying commodities are present.
