Saudi Arabia's ambition for the mining sector goes beyond exploration after manufacturing and construction of supply chains

The strategy of the Saudi mining sector is not only dependent on exploration and withdrawal, but also surpasses it to the refinement, manufacture and construction of integrated supply chains. A strategy supported by major national abilities, but in return it is challenges. Will the kingdom succeed in converting its mineral wealth as ‘future oil’? .. It was one of the axes of the “Business Week” program on “Al -Sharq” channel for this week. In recent months, Saudi Arabia has announced agreements of more than $ 9 billion to develop refining and treatment projects, which estimate the value of the country’s reserves according to the latest statistics on more than $ 2.5 billion. The Saudi -“Arab mining” business (Maaden) concluded partnerships with global entities aimed at the creation of value added for this wealth and localization of technology. Bandar Al -Jaid, Professor of Economic Media at King Abdulaziz in Jeddah, said during his participation in the program that the Saudi government attached extraordinary interest within the ‘Vision 2030’ to diversify the sources of income and the contribution of non -oil sectors to the gross household and possession of large metal and the letharan increase. Procedures to enable the mining sector in Saudi Arabia, note that the government has worked over the past year to create climate by developing laws and improving the investor experience, in addition to organizing an annual global event, which is the ‘international mining conference’, with the aim of arranging meetings between world mining and saudi companies and Kingdom to see. Al -Ja’id explained that the mining sector is a furious competition between the production of the world, especially for the mineral called ‘rare minerals’, which has become an urgent component in advanced industries and fine technology. Added that it is a sufficient motivation to attract international businesses to start exploration operations in new areas far from the traditional areas of Central Africa. He said that Saudi Arabia seeks to localize accurate and advanced technological industries, such as data centers and electric cars and their batteries, also protect these urgent minerals in these industries. He emphasized that partnerships with international companies, such as recently done with US, Chinese, Australian and Indonesian businesses, are important to transfer the experiences that these businesses enjoy to Saudi businesses to resolve this knowledge. Saudi external investments “The kingdom not only attracted global mining companies to the country, but Saudi businesses came out for minerals abroad, especially on the African continent,” according to Al -Jaid, which gave an example of the “Manara” business that is integrated. On the other hand, Al -Jaid has warned that the mining sector in the kingdom faces challenges, which is the scarcity of water in an industry that needs large amounts of IT, and environmental effects associated with waste removal. He added that the major financing needs and the high cost of the different mining stages are another challenge. The Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Bandar Al -khar, indicated at the beginning of the year in a meeting of ministers who deals with miners at the beginning of the year in the work of the International Mining Conference in Riyadh, that the world needs investment in the next ten years to value.