Saudi Arabia issues exploration licenses for first mineralized belts

Logo of  Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources

Saudi Arabia’s ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources issued exploration licenses to local and international companies that won the recent mining tenders for the Kingdom’s first mineralized belts at the Jabal Sayid and Al-Hijar sites, which together span 4,788 square kilometres.

The first license covered more than 2,000 km² in the Jabal Sayid belt, while two others were tendered for Al- Hijar site within the Wadi Shawas belt, covering 1,896 km².

According to the ministry, these areas contain deposits of copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc. The licences were awarded to domestic and international firms through a transparent bidding process based on defined technical and financial criteria.

The winners included:

- A consortium of ARTAR, Gold and Minerals Ltd. (G&M), and Jacaranda — fully owned by Australia’s Hancock Prospecting — which secured the exploration licence for the northern Al-Hijar site.

- India’s Vedanta Ltd., one of the world’s largest zinc producers, obtained the first exploration licence in the Jabal Sayid belt.

- A consortium of Ajlan & Brothers and China’s Zijin Mining — among the world’s five largest mining companies — won the second exploration licence in the Jabal Sayid belt.

- Norin Ajlan & Brothers Mining Co secured the exploration licence for the southern Al-Hijar site.