Owais Metal and Mineral Processing Ltd is a company built on a single, recurring idea: take what industry throws away - slag, overburden, waste dust - and turn it into high-value metals and minerals. It began as a trading proprietorship in 2016, leased its first processing plants a few years later, and then bought them outright between 2021 and 2023, converting a rented operation into an owned manufacturing base. That same pattern of starting with waste and moving toward ownership and proprietary technology now defines everything it does, from manganese processing to the extraction of rare earth elements at 99.9% purity.
Business segments
A single processing engine built on a waste-to-wealth philosophy, spanning manganese products, rare earth recovery, quartz, wood charcoal, and precious metals - all fed by industrial waste and mining byproducts, with rare earth extraction as the technological crown jewel.
1. Manganese-based products: the cash engine that processes what mines discard
Manganese ore beneficiated from mine overburden generates roughly 80% of EBITDA, making waste the company's primary raw material and profit driver.
- Raw material others leave behind - the company processes waste manganese ore sourced from the overburden of manganese mines, extracting value from material that would otherwise be discarded, and holds a 2,100 million-ton manganese ore deposit.
- Energy-light ferro alloy production - MC Ferro Manganese is made using the alumina thermite process, an exothermic reaction that requires minimal external energy, uses recycled mill scale alongside manganese ore, and allows precise control over carbon and alloy content for customised high-performance steel.
- Dust into oxide - Manganese Oxide (MnO) is manufactured from excess manganese ore and waste dust using a cost-effective process, supplying the fertilizer industry, manganese sulfate plants, and makers of electric batteries, paints, and plastics.
- Forward integration into battery materials - the company is setting up an Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide (EMD) plant with a planned Phase 1 capacity of 3,370 tonnes per annum, converting low-value waste into a critical input for lithium-ion, alkaline, and zinc-carbon batteries.
2. Rare earth elements recovery: the technology moat
An in-house proprietary process extracts tin, tantalum pentoxide, niobium pentoxide, and titanium dioxide from waste slag at 99.9% purity - a capability the company claims is one of a kind in India.
- From slag to strategic materials - the rare earth elements are recovered from residual slag, with a state-of-the-art processing plant in Madhya Pradesh designed by a team of IIT geologists, engineers, and industry scientists, running at an input capacity of 100 kgs per day.
- Approved to handle sensitive metals - the process earned approval from the Department of Atomic Energy, with necessary permissions obtained to store rare earth metals, a regulatory endorsement that few Indian processors achieve.
- Commercial proof arrived in 2025 - commercial production began in February 2025, and the first commercial sale of Tantalum Pentoxide was completed in October 2025, validating the process for real-world supply.
- End markets that demand purity - Tantalum goes into capacitors, semiconductors, aerospace, and medical implants; Niobium into HSLA steel, superalloys, and healthcare; Titanium Dioxide into coatings, cosmetics, and construction.
3. Quartz processing and engineered slabs: zero-waste from ore to countertop
Quartz is processed at every size grade - large pieces for industrial buyers, small pieces for B2C engineered slabs, and even the leftovers yield gold concentrate.
- Industrial quartz feeds multiple industries - high-quality quartz is supplied to the ferro alloys, tiles and ceramics, glass, hotel, and interiors industries, as well as semiconductor manufacturing for silicon wafers.
- Small pieces become consumer products - smaller-sized quartz that cannot be sold to industry is fed into the company's own quartz slab plants, manufacturing engineered slabs for countertops, flooring, and wall cladding, with a leased plant in Udaipur offering 27 lakh square feet of annual capacity.
- Gold from quartz waste - an in-house proprietary process extracts high-quality gold concentrate from quartz ore, turning what might be process residue into an additional value stream.
- Export ambitions - the company is focusing on international markets like Dubai for top-quality quartz and granite products.
4. Wood charcoal: the organised player in an unorganised industry
Automatic furnaces cut production time from six days to one, making the company India's first manufacturer using this technology and the only organised player in a fragmented sector.
- A reducing agent for steel - wood charcoal is used as a reducing agent in high-temperature furnaces in the steel and metallurgical industries.
- Technology from China, speed from automation - a contract with a Chinese vendor brought in innovative production processes, and the automatic furnaces are pollution-free, space-efficient, and mobile, so they can be relocated based on raw material availability.
- Capacity tripled in one move - in December 2024, new automatic machines expanded total installed capacity from 10,800 tonnes per annum to 34,800 tonnes per annum, with commercial production commencing immediately.
5. Precious metal recovery and gold mining: the future option
A next-generation leaching process that eliminates cyanide and a promoter-led bid for one of India's biggest gold blocks position the company for a precious metals entry.
- Cleaner leaching technology - the company is setting up a precious metal recovery operation using an eco-friendly leaching process with no sodium cyanide, designed for 100 tonnes per day of input from mining and industrial residues.
- The promoter won the bid - the Managing Director was declared the Preferred Bidder for the Bhukia-Jagpura Gold Mining Lease Block in Rajasthan with a final price offer of 65.30%, depositing Rs. 100 crore as the first upfront installment.
- Competing with majors for more ground - the company qualified in the technical bid for the Dugocha Block (gold and associated minerals) in Rajasthan, alongside Adani Enterprises and Hindustan Zinc.
Group structure and partners
The company stands alone - no subsidiaries, no joint ventures - but is tightly woven into a family ecosystem of related entities that supply materials, services, and capital.
- The company has no subsidiaries, joint ventures, or associate companies, operating as a single entity from its registered office in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, with plants in Meghnagar, Ajmer, and Udaipur.
- The promoter and promoter group held 73.01% of equity as of March 2025, with Managing Director Mr. Saiyyed Owais Ali personally holding 72.07%.
- A significant related party is SMO Ferro Alloys Limited, where the Managing Director also serves as a director, with transactions including an unsecured loan of up to Rs. 100 Crores, sales of wood charcoal, quartz, and manganese ore, and purchases of fixed assets and materials up to Rs. 65 Crores.
- The partnership firm M/s Saiyyed Akhtar Ali, where the Managing Director is a partner, provides civil construction services including labour and machinery up to Rs. 25 Crores, and rent of a VSI plant.
- The company's equity shares trade on the NSE Emerge platform under the code OWAIS.