Saudi mining ventures gather pace

More than 2,000 sites have been identified by the Saudi Geological Survey in the mountainous Arabian Shield running along the kingdom's Red Sea coast and in areas to the centre and north of the country.

Rich seam of minerals

International access to gold, silver, bauxite, phosphate, iron ore, copper and tantalum as well as rich deposits of limestone, dolomite, basalt, marble, gypsum and silica has been opened up by a new mining code approved in 2004. The Al Masane Al Kobra Mining Company is one of the latest ventures.

The company, which is 50 per cent owned by the Arabian American Development Company, is planning a $120m investment at Al Masane to extract gold as well as zinc, copper and silver.

Much of the prospecting for precious metals is taking place in sites mined for thousands of years near ancient caravan routes, the full potential of which can now be exploited with modern mining methods.

The state-owned Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) has four gold mines in operation, and two others under development, and expects to see gold production double to 13.6 tonnes by 2009.

Not only gold that glitters

While precious metals generate interest, the kingdom's industrial minerals potentially hold even more promise. The tantalum deposit at Ghurayyah is one of the largest in the world with over 95,000 tonnes of the mineral which is used extensively in the electronics industry.

Significant deposits of copper have also been discovered at Jabal Sayid in the west. Zinc has been found at Khnaiguiyah, south west of Riyadh, as well as at Al Masane to the west of Abha.

Ma'aden's long-term strategy is to develop and exploit a full range of mining opportunities. One of the biggest of these concerns the northern region's phosphate reserves which will allow Saudi Arabia to become a significant supplier of phosphate fertiliser and related downstream products.

The aim is to mine and beneficiate phosphate rock at a site at Al Jalamid and then transport 4.5 million tonnes per annum of the concentrate by a railway, now under development, to Ras Az Zawr on the eastern Saudi Gulf coast. Production there of diammonium phosphate (DAP), at a rate of 3 million tonnes per year, is scheduled to begin initial operations within two years.

When in full operation Ras Az Zawr will be the lowest cost and largest single site producer of DAP producing nearly 10 per cent of global requirements.

In tandem with the phosphate venture Ma'aden is also is developing a 3.3 million tonnes per year bauxite mine at Az Zabirah in the central northern area of the kingdom. The mine will supply the country's first aluminium smelter, also under development at the new city being constructed at Ras Az Zawr.

Development of the promising magnesite deposit at Zarghat in the north central part of the country, south west of Hail, is yet another element in Saudi Arabia's strategy to develop and diversify the kingdom's mining sector.

See also:
Saudi non-oil exports build new economy
Saudi aluminium industry takes off