Saudi Arabia ideally positioned to drive the clean energy transition

Saudi Arabia is uniquely placed as a blank canvas on which to build a responsible mining industry of the future, said His Excellency Vice-Minister for Mining Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Eng. Khalid Al-Mudaifer, who was speaking at the Future Investment Initiative (FII), which convenes the world’s foremost CEOs, policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs, and young leaders to shape the future of international investment and the global economy. The event took place at the King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 25 – 27 October.

Saudi Arabia has embarked on an ambitious program to substantially expand mining and transform the sector into the third pillar of the national economy, and will support the development of mineral and metal products for export to local and global communities. Additionally, this is being undertaken with the goal of sustainability, supporting the global drive to increase clean energy use. Saudi Arabia is stepping up to the plate as a key player in climate action, and is working to become a global hub for responsible green minerals production and technologies.

Over the past 20 months, Saudi Arabia has developed a digital licensing platform to issue licenses in a world-record time. During this time, the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources has issued 250 exploration licenses, which is almost equal to those issued in the past 10 years. The Ministry received 1,200 applications and has issued 20 mining licenses in the last 20 months, and currently has 67 applications at present.

“Minerals now are the medicine needed to heal our planet, but there are two challenges that we need to urgently address. The first is that we need to discover mineral deposits timeously and then produce enough of them. Secondly, we need for society to allow these minerals to be produced,” stated HE Al-Mudaifer.

Furthermore, over the last four years Saudi Arabia has embarked on a full transformation and development of its mining sector. This has included: undertaking the world’s largest and latest regional geological survey, which spans over 700 000 km2 of the Arabian shield and came at a cost of more than $1.5 billion; issuing its first version of a digital national geoscience database, which contains 80 years of geological records in the Kingdom; issuing fully revised new world-class laws that are competitive and provides for security of tenure; and a transparent, clear regulatory environment that embraces the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) principles.

HE Al-Mudaifer pointed out that the country had embarked on an accelerated exploration program that will expedite licensing provisions to early-stage sites for highly capable and socially responsible investors. “The Kingdom has already completed two license auctions in a strict timeline and with high transparency, with 16 more in the pipeline and one already offered for expression of interest,” he stated.

HE Al-Mudaifer added that governments needed to create an ecosystem to drive mineral innovation by laying out a four-point plan. First by providing digital infrastructure, connectivity and cybersecurity, secondly by setting policies and regulations to encourage and attract technology investment, the thirdly by creating the right platform to develop the human capital needed for this ecosystem, and finally, by building the right enablers incentives and funding sources for research and development, venture investment, and growth of technology ecosystem.

“This is where the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) has an important role to play. These are some of the issues we will be tackling when the FMF when it convenes again from January 10-12, 2022, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,” concluded. HE Al-Mudaifer.