Jordan’s Wadi Araba Minerals Company has taken further steps to advance the Abu Khushaibah copper project through new agreements covering exploration drilling and workforce development, according to a report by local Arabic language news website Khaberni.

The company, which holds exploration concession in the Abu Khushaibah area for copper and gold, signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia-based mining services firm Golden Compass to undertake exploratory drilling activities using advanced equipment, technologies and technical teams, the website reported on Thursday.

Wadi Araba Minerals also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Jordan’s Vocational Training Corporation to develop the skills of Jordanian workers and support the growing mining sector.

Processing facility

The Khaberni report said the company has commenced preliminary civil works for the construction of its first ore-processing plant and plans to develop a larger processing facility at a later stage. It said the plant will have annual processing capacity ranging between 1,000 and 3,000 tonnes of raw copper ore.

The project is expected to create more than 800 direct jobs in addition to hundreds of indirect employment opportunities, the report said, adding that the company has also launched an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study through local consultancy HIMA Consult.

Mining concessions 

The Abu Khushaibah concession agreement, signed in December 2025, is the Kingdom’s first copper exploration and development concession.

The project originated in a non-binding MOU signed in June 2022 between Jordan’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) and Turkish company Solvest Trade and Industry to undertake exploration and JORC-compliant resource evaluation across a 48-square-kilometre (sq. km) area. Following the study results, Solvest established Wadi Araba Minerals Company for the implementation phase.

In September 2025, Wadi Araba Minerals and MEMR also signed Jordan’s first-ever concession agreement for gold ore exploitation, according to a report by local English language newspaper Jordan Times.

The agreement covers a 66-sq km concession area (inclusive of the 48-sq km copper concession) in Wadi Araba, including Abu Khushaibah, Abu Barqa Mountains and Al Buraq. The company had said that operations would begin immediately under a 36-month programme, which includes drilling, laboratory analysis, and geological modelling.

(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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