Abu Dhabi: Global Force Capital and Italy’s Elettronica SpA yesterday announced the formation of a joint venture to build a plant in Abu Dhabi for refining and fabricating bars and grains of gold and other precious metals.

It will be the first gold and silver refinery in Abu Dhabi and is set to be the region’s largest dual refinery.

The company is a new offset joint venture facilitated by the Offset Programme Bureau, in line with the requirements of the UAE Offsets Programme, which aims at adding value to the UAE economy through defence equipment procurements made by the UAE Armed Forces. Through this joint venture, Elettronica is seeking to fulfil its offset obligation arising from a defence equipment supply contract with the UAE Armed Forces.

The plant will be set up at a total cost of Dh67.3 million ($18.3 million), with 51 per cent owned by Khalid Ahmad Al Mansour, Chairman of Global Force Capital, and the remainder by Elettronica and other investors including the technology partners. The project will be funded through a combination of equity and debt.

Elettronica is a leading designer and manufacturer of Electronic Warfare (EW) systems with a remarkable record of success in the UAE, ranging from the EW suite on board of the Mirage 2000/9, to the ESM system for the Baynunah Corvettes and Elint sensors for the Military Intelligence (MISS).