Saudi Arabia nearly doubled the estimate for the value of its mineral resources and is seeing lucrative deals signed during its Future Minerals Forum held in Riyadh this week, ministers told CNBC.
Estimates for the kingdom’s untapped mineral reserves have jumped from $1.3 trillion in a 2016 forecast to $2.5 trillion, according to Saudi Mineral Resources and Industry Minister Bandar Al Khorayef. The resources include gold, copper, phosphate and rare earth elements, offering new sources of subterranean wealth on top of Saudi Arabia’s mammoth oil reserves.
“We are very excited about this news … it’s really a result of what we have been doing in the last four years,” Al Khorayef told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Wednesday.
The Saudi government announced $20 billion in deals would be signed at the annual minerals forum, and the mining minister hailed recent reforms to the kingdom’s laws and business practices as being pivotal to that windfall.
“Revamping our investment law has helped a lot of investment to come in the light, the number of licenses that we have issued in the last only two years is in the neighborhood of about 4,500,” Al Khorayef said.
“Plus the amount of spending that we have been doing in our geological survey program; these two things alone allow us to access information and data on different reserves. And the beauty about the number … is really it’s the combination of new findings, especially with the rare earth metals, plus also more deposits of what we already know, in phosphate, gold, and copper, and zinc, and so on. So it’s a combination of all of this.”
The minister noted that the figures were “only based on 30% of the Arabian shields exploration … which will continue hopefully to reach 100%.” The Arabian-Nubian shield is an expansive block of rock crust spanning the western Arabian peninsula and northeast Africa that is believed to have been the site of mining activity and exploration for thousands of years.
Saudi Arabia has developed 33 new…
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