São Paulo – Saudi Arabia has granted 1,700 mining licenses that generated investment of 100 billion rials (US$ 26.7 billion), according to the Ministry of Oil and Mineral resources of the country, published on Friday (09) by Saudi newspaper Arab News.
According to the deputy minister for Minerals, Sultan Shawli, investors in the sector had revenues of 16 billion rials (US$ 4.3 billion) with exploration of mines and had profit of 6.2 billion rials (US$ 1.65 billion).
“We have established more than 300 mining complexes,” he said, according to Arab News. That is the equivalent to 52,000 square kilometres. The licensed companies have explored 300 million tonnes of raw material up to now.
Among the licenses, 30 were granted to 15 companies that produce inputs for cement production. According to the newspaper, they explore 52 million tonnes of material like calcium, gypsum and others. In the area of building material, 1,300 licenses were granted, also including marble and other ornamental stone mines.
The deputy minister added that there are five licenses for exploration of gold, silver, copper and zinc. Up to the moment, they have resulted in production of 143,000 ounces of gold (4.4 tonnes), 7.5 tonnes of silver, 5,000 tonnes of zinc and 1,600 tonnes of copper.
According to the paper, there were also concessions for 63 licenses for exploration of precious minerals, 29 for industrial minerals and another 50 for the state-owned Ma’aden for production of phosphates. The ministry has received 420 million rials (US$ 112 million) for the licenses up to now.
*Translated by Mark Ament
