Gabon seeks to revive the “Maboni” minerals project with an investment of two billion dollars

Gabon is seeking to revive the "Maboni" project for niobium and rare metals, which has been stalled for a long time, through a proposed development project worth two billion dollars, which includes the "New Energy Metals" company supported by the UAE, and the Chinese "Envy" engineering group.

New Energy Metals and its subsidiary, Dusk Gabon, presented a technical study for the project to President Brice Cloutier Oligy Nguema during his visit to Beijing last week, according to a statement published on the presidential page on the Facebook platform.

If the project is approved, it is expected to provide more than 2,500 direct job opportunities and include processing facilities in the Central African country. Construction work is scheduled to begin in 2027.

It is noteworthy that the “Maboni” project, which is located about 200 kilometers southeast of Libreville; The capital of Gabon, it has been under exploration for years, but has not reached the stage of commercial production.

The Financial Times reported in a report on Sunday that Anthropic, a startup in the field of artificial intelligence, had concluded a deal worth about $3.4 billion to provide gas-powered power generators for its data centers.

The report stated that in late September, the company obtained commitments to supply high-capacity power generators with a total of 1.7 gigawatts from One Power Solutions, an equipment supplier headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

The report added, citing an informed source, that “Anthropic” did not acquire the “One Power Solutions” company itself, nor did any of the supplier’s employees move to the startup company, but the deal included providing the engineering and construction capabilities necessary to install these generators.

Strong demand for Anthropic's Cloud AI models has prompted the company to seek additional computing and energy capabilities.

Reuters reported last September that Anthropic expects to spend more than $500 billion over the next 10 years to create artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The main market index, TASI, ended Sunday's session with a decline of 0.8 percent, closing at 10,017 points, losing 79 points, amid trades with a total value of about 2.7 billion riyals ($720 million).

The session witnessed a decline in a number of leading stocks, as “Al Rajhi Bank” shares fell by 1.5 percent, “Al Ahli Saudi” shares fell by 1.3 percent, while “Saudi Aramco” shares fell by 0.3 percent.

The shares of “SMC Healthcare” and “SADAFCO” also fell by about 5 percent, the shares of “Umm Al-Qura Cement” by 3 percent, and “Tasnee” by 2.6 percent.

On the other hand, ACWA Power shares rose by 2.1 percent to 157 riyals, after the company announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2026, which exceeded market expectations.

Among the stocks associated with financial results announcements for the third quarter, “Saudi German Health” rose by about 10 percent, “Arabia” by 4 percent, “Resources” by 2.3 percent, and “Tanmeyah” by 2.9 percent.