The Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Bandar Al-Khorayef, announced at an industrial event on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia has established an incentive program for mineral exploration with a budget exceeding $182 million. He added that the coming days will witness the signing of deals worth 75 billion riyals, which is nearly $20 billion, aimed at enhancing research, development, technology, and value-added supply chain opportunities.
Mining is a key part of Saudi Arabia's efforts to build an economy that is not heavily reliant on oil, which involves a shift towards exploiting vast reserves of phosphate, gold, copper, and bauxite. Al-Khorayef told Reuters on Tuesday that the government has revised its estimates for unexploited mineral resources upward to $2.5 trillion from the $1.3 trillion forecast made in 2016, reiterating this during the Future Minerals Forum on Wednesday.
He stated, "These figures that I just presented to you are based only on 30 percent of the exploration of the Arabian shields, indicating more discoveries ahead." The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plans to grant more than 30 mining exploration licenses to international investors this year, with exploration areas exceeding 2,000 kilometers for each license.
