MDO grows asset base as Oman bets on mining pipeline

MUSCAT: Minerals Development Oman (MDO), the wholly state-owned mining sector investment company, grew its asset base strongly in 2025 even as revenue fell, highlighting how Oman’s mining sector is still in a build-up phase, with money going into major projects that are expected to deliver over time rather than immediately.

MDO – part of Oman Investment Authority (OIA) - said total assets rose to RO 226.9 million in 2025 from RO 185.9 million a year earlier, while net assets increased to RO 189.6 million from RO 159 million. Revenue, however, dropped to RO 10.1 million from RO 16.6 million. The company said this reflected its current focus on developing strategic projects rather than operating at full commercial scale.

That matters because the numbers tell a clearer story than the headline growth alone. MDO is not yet being judged mainly on sales. It is being judged on whether it can turn Oman’s mineral potential into bankable, operating projects that create long-term value.

The clearest example is the Mazoon Copper Project, which remains the centrepiece of MDO’s portfolio. The project reached 35 per cent completion in 2025 and secured $270 million in financing, equal to around 60 per cent of its total value. MDO also said Mazoon added 4.9 million tonnes of new resources during the year.

Beyond copper, the company is pushing ahead with a wider pipeline. The Sohar Titanium Project reached 89 per cent overall completion, with construction works 84 per cent complete and the first two furnaces successfully commissioned. In Dhofar, the Ash-Shuwimiyah Industrial Minerals Project moved forward through a strategic partnership with JSW (India) and is designed around large reserves of gypsum, limestone and dolomite, backed by dedicated port infrastructure.

Taken together, these projects show where the real story is: Oman is trying to build a mining sector that goes beyond extraction and moves into processing, industrial inputs and export capacity. That fits squarely within the broader diversification agenda under Vision 2040.

MDO also used 2025 to deepen exploration. The company said it carried out large-scale geophysical surveys, drilling and geochemical analysis across its concessions, helping lift copper and chromite resources and strengthen its longer-term production base.

There is also a domestic economic angle. MDO said 32 per cent of its total spending in 2025 went to small and medium enterprises, as it tried to widen local participation in the mining value chain.

The wider message from the report is straightforward: revenue may be softer for now, but MDO is using this phase to build assets, secure financing and push strategic projects closer to production. For Oman, that makes mining less a short-term earnings story and more a long-term industrial one.