RIYADH — The Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef has issued 7 decisions related to the largest allocation process for mining reserve sites in the Kingdom, including 54 sites with an area of approximately 4000 km2, in light of the aspirations of the leadership to develop the mining sector in line with Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

These distributed sites are in the regions of Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Asir, Hail and Najran. Twelve of these sites were allocated to gold ore, 12 sites for copper ore, nine sites for rare earth elements, seven sites for silver ore, five sites for zinc ore, three sites for lead ore, two sites for iron ore, two sites for quartz ore, one site for tin ore and one site for molybdenum ore.

By identifying these mining sites in various regions of the Kingdom, the ministry could achieve a number of goals, including providing attractive investment environment, providing the data needed by the private sector in this field, and offering opportunities for local and international companies to invest in the utilization of mineral resources.

The Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) plans to start detailed exploration of the aforementioned mining reservoirs and conduct many detailed studies. The SGS will then make models for them and calculate the mineralized sources for each reservoir and site to be presented later as investment opportunities. — SPA