Manaseer Group isn't a company that makes investment decisions lightly. As one of Jordan's more prominent diversified conglomerates, the group had the resources and the ambition to build a large-scale manufacturing operation — but they wanted to get it right. The brief they brought to NPCS was essentially this: find a manufacturing opportunity that makes the most of what Jordan has to offer, serves genuine industrial demand, and stacks up financially over the long run.

After evaluating options across mineral processing and specialty industrial materials, NPCS recommended activated bleaching earth manufacturing — specifically, producing it from Jordan's locally available bentonite clay deposits.

The logic was compelling on multiple fronts.

Activated bleaching earth is an industrial workhorse. It's used in edible oil refining to strip out pigments, phospholipids, trace metals, and off-flavors — a non-negotiable step in producing cooking oils that meet food safety standards. It also has applications in mineral oil and lubricant processing, biodiesel refining, and pharmaceuticals. Around 72% of global consumption comes from edible oil refining alone, and that demand doesn't fluctuate much. People buy cooking oil through recessions, supply chain disruptions, and commodity cycles.

The global market was valued at approximately USD 3.13 billion in 2025, with projections pointing toward USD 4.1 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of around 5.5%. More importantly for Manaseer, Jordan sits at a natural crossroads between Middle Eastern, Asian, and African markets — regions that represent some of the fastest-growing demand for refined edible oils. A Jordanian producer would have real logistical and positioning advantages that manufacturers in more distant locations simply don't have.

And the raw material was right there. Bentonite clay deposits in and around Jordan provided a viable, accessible feedstock base, reducing one of the biggest variables in any mineral processing investment.

NPCS worked through the project in six structured phases. The market assessment covered global and regional demand trends, end-use sector breakdowns, competitive dynamics, and pricing benchmarks. The raw material analysis confirmed bentonite availability and quality in the region, assessed sourcing options for sulfuric acid and other chemical activating agents, and mapped supply chain risks.

On the technical side, we documented the full acid-activation manufacturing process: bentonite extraction and grading, crushing and pre-treatment, controlled acid activation using dilute sulfuric acid to expand the clay's pore structure, washing and neutralization, rotary drying and calcination, milling and particle size classification, and final quality testing before packaging. We specified the plant equipment required at each stage — jaw crushers, acid activation reactors, filter presses, rotary dryers, calcination kilns, ball mills, classifiers, and automated bagging systems.

The financial modeling covered capital investment across land, civil construction, plant and machinery, utilities, and working capital. We built out operating cost structures, revenue projections at multiple capacity utilization levels, and full profitability metrics including ROI, IRR, NPV, payback period, and break-even analysis. The margin profile for this product category is meaningfully above average for mineral processing — the value addition from raw bentonite to finished activated bleaching earth is substantial, and pricing has historically been stable given the non-discretionary nature of demand.

The implementation roadmap covered plant location considerations, phased capacity deployment, equipment procurement sequencing, regulatory and permitting requirements in Jordan, and organizational setup.

Manaseer Group reviewed the feasibility study, expressed confidence in the recommendation, and confirmed they would move forward with implementation planning. For a group of their scale, that kind of decisive outcome reflects how clearly the work answered the questions that mattered.