Top UAE gold refiners to double capacities

Three top gold refiners in the UAE are more than doubling their processing capacities this year, sending signals that the flow of gold into Dubai, the world's largest re-exporter of gold, may substantially improve this year.

The refineries that are enhancing their production this year are Al Ghaith Gold DMCC, Kaloti Jewellers DMCC and London Stock Exchange-listed Vedanta, which runs a refinery in Fujairah Free Zone.

Al Ghaith Gold DMCC is increasing the annual processing capacity of its foundry more than threefold from 600 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes this year.

Vedanta, which processes gold ore from mines in Africa, is raising its refining capacity from the present 20 tonnes to about 50 tonnes. Kaloti Jewellers International DMCC, which claims to be the largest trader of gold in the UAE, is enhancing the daily production capacity of its Sharjah-based refinery from one tonne to 1.5 tonne, which would mean an annual increase in production capacity from 350 tonnes to almost 525 tonnes.

"We will be moving into a new location within the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre to enhance our production capacity. This place has better infrastructure, especially with regards to power supply, and that will help us enhance our capacity," Mohamed Hassan Elzubeir, General Manager of Al Ghaith Gold DMCC, told Emirates Business.

All these refiners decline to point out a specific time frame for the enhancement of their capacity and said that it would happen sometime this year. Asked where will they source the additional gold from, they said that it would be from mines in Africa and from scrap coming in from the Indian Subcontinent and Africa.

Kaloti Jewellery Group, which has a turnover of 400 tonnes of bullion and jewellery gold every year, has plans to increase its kilo bar production to more than 1,500 kg a day this year, the company said in a release.

Kaloti Jewellery International DMCC is among the largest contributors to global precious metals OTC and derivatives markets, as it trades and hedges hundreds of tonnes of bullion annually via international and local trading exchanges like the New York Mercantile Exchange, Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange, London Bullion Market Association and Istanbul Gold Exchange. According to the latest available official figures, Dubai's gold industry was worth $29 billion (Dh106.4bn) last year. Statistics from the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority show that the emirate imported 576 tonnes of the precious metal in 2009, significantly higher than the average annual figure of 498 tonnes.

Gold exports increased by nine per cent in 2009 compared to the previous year to reach a figure of 403 tonnes.

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