Finding Nephi’s Ore

Abstract: Khor Kharfot and Wadi Sayq are in the region that has become the premiere candidate for Nephi’s Old-World Bountiful. Out of the several matching criteria that has led to this opinion, the one that may be the weakest has been the identification of readily available ore in the area that Nephi could have used to manufacture the tools necessary to build his ship. This investigation, conducted in February 2023, found several distinct examples of iron ores suitable for ”smelting” in the form of float, all pointing to deposits yet to be located. Additionally, I review the investigation of Dr. Revell Phillips, who headed a group from BYU in 2000, that found two locations north of Khor Kharfot apparently containing significant deposits of iron ore. However, one site turned out to be problematic and the other site is too distant for Nephi to have been able to access it. Nonetheless, their efforts are reviewed as a backdrop for this current study. Also presented are findings regarding heretofore unrecognized features of Wadi Sayq and Khor Kharfot and the likely conditions that produced them, going back into the Pleistocene era.

In recent years, Khor Kharfot has been generally accepted as the location that best corresponds to Nephi’s Old World Bountiful. The promise of this site was first identified by Warren Aston after an exhaustive five-year survey and reconnaissance of the south to eastern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula in 1987–1992. In 2022, George Potter published an article promoting Khor Rori, which is located 38 miles (61 km) east of Salalah and about 95 miles (153 km) up the coast from Khor Kharfot, as the most likely Bountiful site (see figure 1).[1] [Page 298]However, a more recent publication from Warren Aston provides a detailed comparison between Khor Kharfot and Khor Rori and shows the deficiencies of Khor Rori as a candidate for Nephi’s Bountiful.[2]

Figure 1. Southeast coast of Oman, Dhofar province.

Aston’s description of his investigation and their results is found in his book Lehi and Sariah in Arabia.[3] Aston identifies twelve criteria garnered from Nephi’s description of the land of Bountiful that must be met for a site to be considered as Bountiful with any reasonable certainty. After presenting all the possible sites he found along the seacoasts of Dhofar (southwest Oman province) and Mahra (northeast Yemen province), he then demonstrated how Khor Kharfot is, by far, the best candidate. It closely matches eleven of the twelve criteria.

There is one of Aston’s criteria that, up to this point, has not been sufficiently verified or identified—the presence of the ore that Nephi was directed to obtain to make tools to build a ship. Infrequent patches of so-called iron-concretions have been identified in the limestones of the Khor Kharfot region, but these are quite wispy and unsubstantial and wholly inadequate to concentrate into useable ore.[4]

[Page 299]In 1 Nephi 17:9, Nephi asks the Lord where he should go to find the ore for his tools. The necessity of Nephi’s seeking the Lord’s guidance indicates that the ore was not underfoot, nor was it something Nephi could readily locate. This implies that our present-day efforts need to focus on areas not only within Khor Kharfot, but also in surrounding areas. Could Nephi’s ore have been something other than iron ore, possibly copper-tin (bronze) or copper-zinc (brass) alloys? Though there are exploitable copper deposits and small-scale zinc mining occurrences in the north of Oman,[5] tin is never mentioned, with zinc only associated with the ophiolites of northern Oman.[6] Additionally, Nephi’s account gives no hint that he had to deal with more than one ore type in either finding the deposits, smelting them, or creating an alloy of the mixture.

During investigations conducted in 2016–2017, a few float samples[7] were discovered that give every appearance of being fairly high-grade iron ore, or that contain iron-rich sedimentary cement/content that may have been derived from richer ore deposits. This was confirmed in one of the samples using spectrographic element analysis.[8] Consequently, the current study (conducted in February 2023) examined the possibility of ore being readily available in the Khor Kharfot region by searching out examples of high-grade iron ore in either float or in situ samples.[9] Samples were to be sought throughout the Khor Kharfot and Wadi Sayq area, and in wadis tributary to Wadi Sayq. Additionally, any samples would be [Page 300]collected with the goal of finding and characterizing the actual ore deposits. These samples, to include those collected on previous expeditions, were then to be analyzed to evaluate their exact mineral composition.

Previous Investigation of Iron Ore in Dhofar Province

When investigators first started thinking about locating Bountiful, they took their cue from Nephi’s description of traveling “nearly eastward” (1 Nephi 17:1) from a place that was called Nahom, where Ishmael was buried (1 Nephi 16:34). Based on the probable but approximate location of Nahom and traveling due east would bring Lehi’s group to the south Arabian Peninsula coast somewhere in northeastern Yemen or southeastern Oman. Initially, the most obvious candidates were in the harbor areas of Salalah or Khor Rori, which currently and anciently were fruitful regions with good, semi-protected access to the sea. This area was the generally accepted location for Nephi’s Bountiful at the time and was the focus of the first expedition mounted to try to locate Nephi’s ore by a group mainly from BYU, headed by Dr. Revell Phillips. He gives an account of this expedition as well as an analysis of probable smelting techniques used by Nephi in an article published in 2000.[10]

Two areas were targeted by Phillips for his iron-ore search: Wadi Nharat and Mirbat.

Wadi Nharat

As is evident in figure 1, Wadi Nharat debouches into the sea and is a relatively short distance (1.75 miles; 2.8 km) north-northeast of the small fishing village of Rakhyut. It was selected by Phillips because a member of his group, who had been an oil geologist in Oman, remembered a small Paleozoic/Precambrian rock exposure at the mouth of the wadi. This was a type of rock deemed most likely to contain hydrothermal, ore-containing dikes (veins with intruded deposits).

Their investigation of this area allegedly revealed the presence of iron ore contained in carbonatites (igneous carbonates). However, Jason Aase, another member of Phillip’s team, calls them carbonate dikes emplaced by fluidization, and having more affinity to marine [Page 301]limestones.[11] This means they would not necessarily have an igneous origin, and are a mixture of calcite (CaCO_3) and siderite (FeCO_3), with pods of almost pure hematite (Fe_2O_3) possibly present in areas where the dikes widen. Phillips describes one pod as measuring eight by ten feet, thus potentially providing ample ore for building tools.[12] They reportedly collected ten samples from this location and analyzed six of them, which revealed iron content from 3 to 28 weight percentage,[13] values that are somewhat less than one would expect from Phillips’s description of them.[14]

Wadi Nharat is especially pertinent to this study because of its proximity to Khor Kharfot and Wadi Sayq (approximately thirteen kilometers or eight miles north-northeast of Kharfot), making it a possibility for the source of Nephi’s ore. It could have been accessed by small boats/rafts and possibly by camel, though the several steep coastal headlands may have rendered the overland route too difficult to travel, especially if more convenient deposits were available.

However, a rather cautionary caveat regarding the Nharat site comes from Warren Aston, who has visited the location on three separate occasions.[15] He has not been able to find the deposits described, nor does any sample from the site show any iron content. Other than Jason Aase’s analyses and the verbal descriptions by Phillips, the deposits at Wadi Nharat have yet to be mapped and adequately analyzed for mineral content.[16] The site warrants a more exacting geologic survey of its possible potential.

[Page 302]Mirbat

The second likely location of iron ore was determined by the Phillips group to be east of the town of Mirbat, located 6 miles (10 km) east of the ancient port ruins of Khor Rori. Khor Rori is situated along an almost entirely enclosed lagoon, 38 miles (62 km) east of Salalah and approximately 89 miles (143 km) north-northeast of Wadi Nharat (see figure 1). The group was investigating ancient rocks exposed in erosional windows in the overlying thick deposits of Cretaceous/Tertiary limestones that dominate the Dhofar province. Phillips describes these ancient rocks as a broad expanse of Precambrian igneous/metamorphic “basement complex” deposits, likely to have been intruded by ore-rich dikes.

Again, they found carbonatite dikes rich in siderite/calcite. However, in this case, the siderite component was apt to have weathered into a “gossan-like mass of goethite/limonite ore (Fe_2O_3.nH_2O).”[17] They deemed this deposit as the most significant one yet encountered and focused on data garnered from it for further studies.

The study of the Wadi Nharat and Mirbat sites is important, not only because of the iron ore located there, but because the described environments may be similar to those containing iron ore closer to Khor Kharfot. I found strong hints in this study that this is the case.

Samples Found at Wadi Sayq and Khor Kharfot

Figure 2. Team member Jon Groneman, standing next to several large interlocking boulders in Wadi Sayq’s thalweg.

The primary focus of this study envisioned searching for more iron-related samples or deposits closer to the most likely candidate for Bountiful, namely Khor Kharfot and Wadi Sayq. This would entail a search for iron ore float samples located along the Khor Kharfot inlet and along the length of Wadi Sayq leading into it. The idea was that the actual source deposit of the float samples would be found close to where float samples were no longer apparent, either close to the wadi’s thalweg[18] or somewhere up either of its enclosing sides. What was not anticipated was the extremely rugged terrain that would be encountered going up the grade of the wadi. Due to time and manpower constraints, our team fell short of locating the actual deposits. Examples of this rugged terrain are seen in figure 2, showing gigantic, interlocking boulders in an area beyond the junction of Wadi Sayq with Wadi Kharfot. Figure 3 shows the boulder-strewn terrain at the [Page 303]tail-end of Wadi Sayq just before it enters one of the ponds at the west end of Kharfot Lagoon.

The presence of large boulders

Figure 3. Boulder field at the lowest point of Wadi Sayq with a pond at the west end of Kharfot Lagoon visible in background.

The incredible jumble of boulders at the lowest point of the wadi is due to the loss of the Wadi Sayq gradient as it meets the lagoon area. It can be seen on Google Earth to continue almost unabated up to a point in the wadi halfway to where the highway crosses it. Figure 4 shows Wadi Sayq from Kharfot Lagoon up to the highway crossing near the western end of the image. The label “Max Boulders” shows the start of the boulder concentration. Figure 5 shows this abrupt terrain change. Further up the wadi, boulder patches are much more infrequent. They mostly consist of one or two boulders in the ten- to thirty-foot diameter or greater size range. Some of these show a few smaller boulders that have accumulated around them. The large boulders (figure 2) are likely to be located at or close to the area in which they landed after falling from the surrounding cliffs. They are much too large to have been moved very far by the force of water, either in the present or anciently.

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Figure 4. Overview of Wadi Sayq, extending from Khor Kharfot lagoon to the highway crossing shown at left of image. This investigation was limited to the wadi to the east of the highway, though the wadi also extends several miles west of this point.

Figure 5. Point in Wadi Sayq where terrain starts to be dominated by boulders.

A reasonable explanation for the concentrated boulder field in the lower wadi is suggested by strong evidence that the sea level was over 400 feet lower during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; approximately 20,000 years ago) than where it is now, and only reached its [Page 305]present level about 7,000–8,000 years ago.[19] Three situations logically follow from this:

1. The gorge near the present outlet at the lower sea level would have been much deeper.

2. As the sea rose, the deeper gorge would have filled in with sediment to a higher level resulting in a wider lagoon valley than the wadi leading into it.

3. Boulders would not only build up at the lagoon/wadi junction because of the loss of gradient, but would start backing up behind this junction over time.

It should be mentioned that in the present day, water only flows in the wadi during the rainy season driven by the Khareef Monsoon, which is active from June into September. Additionally, devastating cyclones strike the region every four to ten years causing massive flooding and destruction. The last two cyclones occurred in May 2018 and October 2021, which resulted in the semi-permanent sand bar across the Kharfot Lagoon temporarily blowing out, emulating how it might have been anciently.

Ancient climate regimes affecting the Wadi Sayq and Khor Kharfot regions

Linda Pappas Funsch has spent the last eighteen years doing service work for the Omani Ministries. She first visited Oman in the 1970s and echoes the apparently common opinion that, “Oman enjoyed a relative abundance of water in ancient times.” She further notes that the pre-Islamic Persian Sassanid occupiers of Oman called it “Mazoun from the word muzn, suggesting clouds and abundant flowing water.”[20] Iftikhar Ahmed Abbasi cites pollen data collected from the Dhofar province which supports a wetter climate there anciently.[21]

Evidence has also been collected for the existence of perennial [Page 306]paleolakes and paleowater channels in the eastern and western portions of the Rub’ al-Khali or Empty Quarter, impinging the northwest border of Oman, and for smaller ephemeral intradune paleolakes[22] in other areas of the Rub’ al-Khali desert. This pluvial regime was present as recently as the mid-Holocene (5,500–7,000 years ago), with the remains of large mammal species being found around the large paleolake Mundafan, in the west of this region (e.g., wild goat and sheep, oryx, gazelle, horse and ass, camel, wild cattle, hippopotami, and birds such as ostrich).[23]

Additional data that underscores the earlier wetter climate in southern Oman comes from studies of oxygen isotope content in dated stalagmites found in caves.[24] The Omani studies indicate that there was a gradual decrease in precipitation from very abundant rainfall amounts 8,000 years ago, to what we see today. The studies also suggest this trend was caused by a southward moving Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) driven by an orbitally induced[25] reduction in the summer insolation (solar radiation).

The wetter climate is also confirmed by a study of the sediment configuration and pollen content from both Khor Rori and Khor Al Balid (seaward from Salalah).[26] The findings of this study are important because they indicate a perennial water flow into these estuaries [Page 307]prior to the AD 270–420 timeframe that was sufficient to prevent long-shore currents from building sandbars blocking them. The study also concludes this was a regional phenomenon strongly implying the absence of a sandbar blocking Khor Kharfot prior to this time.

A more open lagoon—effectively, an estuary—would facilitate Nephi being able to launch his ship into the open sea. In any case, any monsoonal flooding, during that time or later, would be sufficient to help dislodge massive boulders from the overhanging cliffs and move smaller ones down the wadi.

George Potter maintains that there is no evidence that Khor Kharfot was anciently in the form of a harbor or estuary that could protect a moored ship, or one being built on a ramp, from tidal/storm surges and monsoonal winds.[27] He adds that it was further lacking in having anything like a breakwater to afford minimal protection. What he hasn’t considered, however, is that the ancient, more intense fluvial regime could have not only kept the inlet open, but could produce strong enough currents to prevent sediment build-up in the “harbor” by moving it out over the off-shore shelf. This would intensify during monsoonal and cyclone episodes and would tend to counteract concurrent storm surges. The result would be a much deeper harbor than the present lagoon suggests.

Additionally, it must be noted that Wadi Sayq and its ending lagoon valley impinges on the coastline generally at about a twenty-five-degree angle, with the last quarter mile making a sixty-degree angle with the shoreline. This means wave/surge momentum (perpendicular to the shoreline) would be deflected from moving directly up the quarter-mile mouth of the harbor by something close to thirty-three percent and by seventy-three percent from moving directly up the continuation of the harbor. In effect, this configuration would act as a breakwater or jetty in relation to the westernmost parts of the harbor.

An additional wrinkle in this climate scenario, which may have impacted the Lehite sojourn at Khor Kharfot, was the onset of colder temperatures from about 750 to 550 BC with the convergence of the Homeric Solar Minimum.[28]

As an aside, after the experience of trying to navigate the section of the boulder-strewn wadi we traversed, and taking note of the thick vegetation covering the steep slopes of the wadi, we find it very difficult [Page 308]to believe that Lehi brought his entire caravan along the full length of Wadi Sayq to Bountiful. It is more likely that he would have followed the wadi thalweg, if at all, up to the point where the massive boulder accumulation started in his time, but then would move higher up the sides or on top of the wadi ridge for the rest of the journey, before dropping down into the lagoon. Traversing the boulder terrain is not only slow and cumbersome, but rather dangerous, especially for a large group. The ridgelines defining the wadi still point to the lagoon inlet, which is visible from many vantage points along the ridges. A recent article by Warren Aston explores the possibility that Lehi’s group entered Khor Kharfot from Wadi Kharfot which, though narrower and steeper than Wadi Sayq, may be more passible.[29]

Major constriction in Wadi Sayq channel

Another aspect of Wadi Sayq worth noting is a significant and unusual constriction of the waterway located about halfway between the start of the boulder fields and the highway crossing of the wadi (figure 6; labeled as Constriction in figure 4). It appears to be a very narrow channel with a possible steep drop-off and is constrained by a cliff on its east side. A closeup of this constriction reveals a very dark rock type in the cliff, the significance of which may indicate it is much harder/denser than the normal limestones of the region. If so, it is not easily eroded and is possibly an expression of the more ancient bedrock in which intrusive dikes containing ore deposits might be found. Any erosional window into the subbasement along the thalweg would be located in the older Cretaceous limestones on its north side. This is because the Tertiary limestones on the south have dropped down along normal faults defining the east-west trace of the Wadi Sayq thalweg to be even with them.[30] This warrants further investigation.

[Page 309]

Figure 6. Unusual Wadi Sayq channel constriction.

Though progress in traveling up the wadi was constrained, we did find float samples of high-grade iron ore in the area we examined. These, added to those found on earlier expeditions, may have been derived or degraded from the original ore source or accompanying igneous injection. Additionally, one example of dike/vein filling outcrop in the form of a large, mostly buried boulder was discovered and photographed (figure 7) and suggested the occurrence of Precambrian/Paleozoic basement rocks noted above.

Sample preparation and analytic technique used

Figure 7. Possible Precambrian/Paleozoic boulder showing vein dikes.

The analytic techniques selected to characterize these samples was three-fold. First, the density of the entire sample (whole rock) was determined for screening purposes and to supplement mineral content data.[31] [Page 310]Second, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analyses were performed on 10–30 gram portions (splits) of these samples to give a semi-quantitative assessment of their mineral content.[32] Third, post-analytic densities of the splits were determined using the weighted averages of mineral components coupled with the density of each component.[33]

It is noteworthy that the densities determined for the 10–30 gram sample splits were quite close to their whole-rock densities, though generally showing slightly higher values. These higher values are likely due to porosity (voids) present in the large samples that are absent in the ground-up sample splits. Any drastic difference between the whole-rock and split densities would indicate problems with the analytic result.

Sample characterization

Float samples collected from the Khor Kharfot/Wadi Sayq site, coupled with similar samples collected on earlier expeditions, could be visually categorized into three separate groups:

- Those showing obvious and major hematite (Fe_2

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