Beth agency:
Development movement and tangible transformations are taking place in the mining sector in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which, according to the kingdom's Vision 2030, is one of the three main pillars for the development of non –oil revenues, along with the oil and petrochemical industries, in addition to the kingdom's abundant mineral wealth, which is an important tributary to the development of the economy and the diversification of its sources.

The kingdom has raised its estimates of mineral wealth to 9.4 trillion riyals (2.5 trillion dollars), and also revealed that it will provide exploration incentives worth about 682.5 million riyals (182 million dollars) by the end of 2023.

The Ministry of industry and Mineral Resources issued 152 new industrial licenses during January 2024, of which non-metallic metal products acquired 20 licenses, while the activities of manufacturing formed metal products, excluding machinery and equipment, acquired 19 licenses.

The report issued by the National Center for industrial and mining information of the Ministry of industry and Mineral Resources showed that the total number of industrial licenses issued by the ministry since the beginning of last year until the end of January this year was 152 licenses, while the number of existing factories under construction in the kingdom until the end of the same month reached 11,672 factories, with investments amounting to 1,539 trillion riyals.

The kingdom has already announced new discoveries, the latest of which is the discovery of huge amounts of gold resources along 100 km from the Mansoura and Masrah mine with a production capacity of 250 thousand ounces per year, which is an important proof of the untapped potential of mineral wealth in Saudi Arabia.

The tangible transformations in the mining sector prove the progress in implementing the comprehensive strategy in the mining sector and its objectives in accordance with the kingdom's Vision 2030, which will achieve an increasing economic and social impact to reach the full achievement of the ambition in 2030.

In the same context, Deputy Minister of industry and mineral resources for Mining Affairs Eng.Khalid Al-Mudaifer said that the kingdom has taken a number of steps to develop the mining sector, including the implementation of many initiatives to create an environment conducive to the development of the mining sector, the issuance of the mining investment law, to facilitate the process of obtaining licenses, reduce the environmental impact of mining operations, maximize the benefits to local communities, and the launch of a geological survey program to provide comprehensive geological data.

He stated that the Saudi Industrial Development Fund finances advanced exploration and mining projects for all minerals up to 75% of the costs of eligible projects, and provides financing products for medium and low-end manufacturing, small and medium enterprises, digitization, renewable energy, and increasing local content.

The Ministry of industry and Mineral Resources has revealed in its monthly report issued by the National Center for industrial and mining information, the most important industrial indicators that clarify the nature of industrial activity in the kingdom, in addition to revealing the size of the change witnessed by the sector in new industrial investments, in addition to indicators related to the mining sector until the end of December 2023, where it announced an increase in the number of existing factories by 10% in 2023, from 10,518 factories in 2022 to 11,549 until last year, and the number of new industrial licenses issued in 2023, 1,379 licenses, with investments amounting to more than 81 billion riyals, while production began in 1,058 factories during the same year with investments amounting to 45 billion riyals.

The kingdom is taking continuous steps to achieve economic transformation, especially in the field of mining, through an ambitious holistic approach based on three stages:

The first stage: mining activities, including surveys and exploration to determine the quantities of minerals, economic feasibility studies, mine development and processing of raw materials.

As for the second stage: the intermediate industries stage includes refining and smelting processes for the manufacture of basic materials, such as: aluminum alloys, iron and steel blocks.

The third stage: the stage of manufacturing industries, which includes the manufacture of semi-finished products such as iron and aluminum sheets, and finished products such as iron pipes and rods. In addition to the implementation of several initiatives in the mining sector, including : rapid exploration programs that will work to develop promising mineral deposits through the implementation of exploration programs with a high degree of reliability, which contributes to increasing investment opportunities and attracting investors.this program is expected to achieve several successes, most notably contributing to increasing the volume of spending and investment on mineral exploration, accelerating and increasing exploration work, contributing to the construction of the exploration sector and increasing the percentage of promising investment opportunities for local and foreign investors, activating the role of small and medium-sized companies and increasing and developing national competencies in exploration and exploration work.

The initiative of the Saudi mining services company was launched, which will support the development of mining investments, including supporting mining directorates, developing control and control procedures at mining license sites, through the use of advanced control methods and modern technologies, and supporting collection services for revenues and fines.it is expected that the mining sector will benefit from this initiative by raising the level of companies ' compliance with environmental, health and safety standards to serve workers in the sector and neighboring communities and raise the efficiency of monitoring exploited resources, which contributes to increasing state revenues.

The Saudi Geological Survey has introduced the initiative of the general Geological Survey Program, which provides geological information and maps of various scales, multi-way aerial surveys and geochemical surveys of the entire Arabian Shield region, in order to support accelerating investment in mineral exploration through obtaining high-precision basic regional geological information, and the establishment of an advanced Center for analyzing all geological information that analyzes, interprets and models geological data using the latest artificial intelligence technologies, which contributes to the exploration of new minerals and serves urban and Urban Development and all fields of Earth Sciences.

The initiative contributes to the transfer of knowledge and qualification, and the establishment of a strategic unit to oversee the work of the initiative and other initiatives at the Geological Survey.this program is expected to affect the sector by providing high-precision geological information, which will lead to attracting and increasing investments in the mining sector to become one of the main pillars of the economy in the kingdom, enhancing confidence in exploration work and its outputs by contributing to the provision of new data, identifying evidence of the existence of promising mineral deposits and deposits in the Arabian Shield, and increasing and developing national competencies in geological survey work.

The logistics sector also contributes to the empowerment of the mining sector by raising the attractiveness of investment in the mining sector by providing solutions for the transportation of mining ores, raw materials and processed metals to smelters and factories in industrial cities at competitive and attractive prices, through the construction of asphalt and iron road networks that contribute to the integration of supply chains.

All these successful moves will maximize the contribution of the mining sector to the GDP to reach 176 billion riyals by 2030, in addition to many gains such as feeding the internal needs of minerals, raising the level of participation of local content, improving the trade balance, achieving sustainability of the sector, improving legislative and investment capabilities in the sector, generating job opportunities, developing national cadres, introducing new exports, increasing non-oil revenues, and localizing manufacturing.