Saudi Arabia has incentivized innovation to create smart mining environment, says minister

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has incentivized innovation to create a smart mining environment and taking care of talents and human capital to drive mining success, said minister of industry and mineral resources.

Speaking at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town on Monday, Bandar Alkhorayef said the global demand for critical minerals is rising and will continue to rise.

“The responsibility of governments is to create socially and environmentally sustainable mining ecosystems while meeting this demand.”

The minister said the Kingdom is working to create a mining ecosystem that assures transparency, sustainability and ease of doing business to offer an exceptional experience for investors in the mining sector.

The responsibility of governments is to create socially and environmentally sustainable mining ecosystems while meeting this demand.

The Saudi mining sector achieved record revenues in 2021 amounting to SR727 million ($194 million) and succeeded in attracting investments worth more than SR30 billion and working on stimulating additional investments worth SR120 billion.

“The infrastructure required to support mining is of tremendous importance for the success of the mining sector. We are developing it to bring in investment opportunities for the mining sector,” Alkhorayef added.

Highlighting the importance of geological surveys, the Saudi minister said the data of such surveys “de-risks investments in mining.”

“Saudi Arabia developed the mining strategy as part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 after looking at the experiences of other countries,” he said.

Saudi Arabia has been working to amend the mining sector regulations and legislation to provide a friendly environment for investors in this sector. 

The Kingdom seeks to increase the sector’s contribution to growth, economic diversification, job creation, and the transition to clean energy.