GRC was formed in the late 1979 by its current Chairman (Sala'am), and began operations as a civil engineering contractor. Shortly after, an association with the Kaiser Aluminium Company led to the success of Alba, the first aluminium smelting company in Bahrain. GRC then embarked on a grand smelter scheme with Kaiser Aluminium to launch a massive joint venture including oil refining and aluminium smelting in Qatar, UAE & Saudi Arabia.