Switzerland’s Unifico Copper FZC has opened a new offices and processing facility for copper and gold at Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE.

The plant covers an area of two million square metres and will become fully operational by the fourth quarter of 2018. It will supply 500,000 tonnes of London Metal Exchange standard copper cathodes a year to the UAE and Middle East markets.

The facility is the first in the Middle East to be set up by mine owners. The copper will be sourced from Chilean copper mines owned by Unifico.