Shocking news emerged from Saudi Arabia after the Kingdom discovered new sources for gold and copper ore deposits in Madina last Thursday.
According to the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), which Survey and Mineral Exploration Centre represented, the discovery of gold deposits was within the boundaries of the Aba Al-Raha, Umm Al-Barrak Hejaz in the region of Madina.
In addition to finding a new source of gold, SSG also announced that they also found copper ore sources at four sited in the Al-Madiq area, which is also in Madina. These discoveries represent the promising potential for special copper deposits from the dispersed mineral chalcocite (Cu2S) and some secondary copper carbonate minerals.
As reported by Al-Arabiya, this promising discovery is expected to attract local and international investment, with a value of up to $533 million, which will undoubtedly contribute to the economic development of the Kingdom of Saudi through the mining sector.
Mining is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, intended to steer the country towards a diversified, post-oil economy. The prince has long had ambitions to open more mineral exploration in the Kingdom. However, he announced in June that national priorities for the research and development sector would be his main focus.
Later in July, Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Mudaiger said that the Kingdom would attract more than $8 billion worth of foreign investment into the mining sector. The Ministry’s target is to fund nine midstream mineral and metal mining projects. In addition, Saudi Arabia has announced it is also targeting to attract $170 billion in investment in the mining sector by the end of the decade.
However, the pace of development and exploitation of the Kingdom’s mines has been slow since Riyadh announced that the Kingdom’s minerals are worth about $1.3 trillion.
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