BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB
DOHA: Qatar Primary Materials Company (QPMC), as part of efforts to meeting the growing demands of construction raw materials in the country, has singed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Belgian engineering consultant, ‘Rent-A-Port’, to initiate works on limestone and gabbro quarries in Oman.
The initiative is in light of the two licences QPMC recently acquired to set up mining operations in the Khatmat Malaha area in the Sultanate.
Once the project is fully complete, the facility will have a 1km long jetty to quarry and transport over three million tonnes of gabbro and marketable primary materials every year by barges to Qatar. The MoU has signed by QPMC CEO Eisa Al Hammadi and Marc Stordiau, Managing Director of Rent-A-Port, for the commissioning of the port and logistical operator to consult and manage the project and related operations at Khatmat Malaha. It also announced the beginning of Phase I expected to be completed in four months.
The signing ceremony, held on Sunday, was graced by Princess Astrid of Belgium, representative of The King of Belgium, and Qatar’s Ambassador to Belgium, Sheikh Ali bin Jassim Al Thani, alongside a high level Belgian business delegation.
The agreement entails submitting a technical, financial and operational feasibility study in addition to an integrated mining operational plan. Phase II and III encompass the design and tendering for design and build contracts and the supervision during the execution of these contracts and commissioning of the facilities.
Al Hammadi said: “Works on the project will begin within a month, and the whole project is expected to take about 20 months. If everything goes according to the plan, the project will commence operation by 2017.”
“The aim of the project is to enhancing the supplies of gabbro and limestone, which will be increased by three million tonnes annually,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the signing ceremony.
He also said: “We are working to ensure supplies of building materials in support of the booming construction industry in Qatar. QPMC is bound to constantly explore new mines in search of primary materials, and with Rent-A-Port as an expert consultant, we hope not only to maximise output from Khatmat Malaha quarries and ensure most efficient operations at controlled costs, but to also achieve a solid leap in the bilateral relations between Qatar and Belgium as two friendly countries.”
He said that once the project is operational, QPMC will start importing gabbro in collaboration with the private sector companies in sufficient quantities meeting the local requirements of the material.
“QPMC aims at ensuring that there is enough strategic stockpile of the primary construction material to deal with emergency situations. We have already achieved the target of 10 million tonnes this year,” Al Hammadi said.
Stordiau added: “We at Rent-A-Port take great pride in associating ourselves with QPMC by providing services to QPMC in the design and feasibility of the said Khatmat Malaha quarry and jetty, also of the new Lusail jetty, cement silo and conveyor stacker project in Qatar.
“We believe that between our professional services and long expertise and QPMC’s dedication and financial robustness, QPMC is becoming a partner of choice for foreign companies looking to facilitate Qatar’s thriving construction sector ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup and beyond.”
The Peninsula
