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Dubai's Kaloti starts work on new $60m gold refinery
New refinery in Jumeirah Lake Towers will have capacity to produce 1,400 tons of gold per year
Kaloti Group, one of the world's largest gold and precious metals refiners and trading houses, has announced the ground breaking at a new $60m refinery in the Jumeirah Lakes Towers Free Zone.
The refinery is expected to be completed in late 2014, the company said in a statement carried by news agency WAM.
Munir Kaloti, chairman of Kaloti Group, said: "This represents a major investment in expanding and upgrading our refining facilities.
"This will be a state of the art refinery to rival the best in the world. It will strengthen our ability to meet the growing international demand for our products as well as give us capacity for growth in the years ahead."
The new refinery, built up over 15,000 sqm, will cost $60m. It will have a capacity to produce up to 1,400 tons of gold and 600 tons of silver and other precious metals and a mint department to produce gold ingots and coins.
This will triple the size of Kaloti's current refinery production and will help meet the rising demand from its worldwide client base.
Kaloti's new refinery will employ latest gold electrolysis technology from Italy and Switzerland as well as the world-wide accepted aqua regia process for gold refining.
Last month, Kaloti Group said it has teamed up with a South American country to build its first gold smelting plant.
The company says it will invest about $20m in a joint venture with local gold traders and the government of Suriname, a tiny nation in north-east South America that has only relatively recently discovered its wealth of gold.
Kaloti Group has investments across the board, from the production of gold from its raw form through to final production of jewellery, ornaments and bullion bars.
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