Saudi Aramco and Maaden inks deal for mining in Saudi Arabia

The state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco and Saudi Arabian mining company Maaden signed a shareholders’ agreement to form a Joint Venture (JV) to unlock new opportunities in mineral exploration and hard-rock mining in Saudi Arabia, the company said on Tuesday.

Combining their strengths in their fields, the JV will focus on copper and other minerals for the energy transition.

The JV is expected to be owned 51% by Maaden and 49% by Aramco and will focus on exploration in Zone-4, also known as the Transition Zone, within the Arabian Platform, opening major new mineral discovery opportunities in the Kingdom.

Covering about 182,000 square kilometers, almost 10% of Saudi Arabia, the planned exploration zone runs parallel to the Arabian Shield and is roughly 100 kilometers wide.

Copper will be a main focus of the JV, which will also explore for other energy transition minerals, including zinc, lead, and rare earth elements expected to be crucial to the industries of the future.

Aramco Vice President of Transition Minerals Saleh M. Al Saleh said the JV would leverage Aramco’s more than 90 years of geological and geophysical data in the Kingdom to accelerate the discovery of key transition minerals.

“This partnership intends to leverage this legacy information to find minerals in the JV area,” Al Saleh said.

Maaden Executive Vice President for Exploration Darryl Clark said the partnership would combine Maaden’s exploration expertise with Aramco’s knowledge of the Arabian Platform to accelerate mineral discoveries.

“We would have an opportunity to move faster, explore smarter,” he added.

• Aramco Vice President of Transition Minerals Saleh M. Al Saleh
• Joint Venture (JV)
• Maaden Executive Vice President for Exploration Darryl Clark