Saudi Arabia wants to attract $170 billion of investment in its mining sector by the end of the decade, exploiting rising global demand for metals crucial to the energy transition.
“That’s a lot of money,” the Saudi mining minister, Bandar Alkhorayef, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Riyadh. Minerals are “becoming more and more essential for the advancement of manufacturing, energy” and industries including automotives.
The investment will come from foreign and local firms, including state miner Maaden. It should enable the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product to reach $64 billion annually by 2030, he said, more than four times today’s figure of $17 billion.
Mining is a crucial part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attempt to diversify the economy from oil. Still, development has been slow since the kingdom announced in 2018 that its minerals were probably worth $1.3 trillion.
Alkhorayef’s comments come as traders warn the world could run short of metals needed to build electric vehicles as well as solar- and wind-power plants. Prices of commodities such as copper, zinc and nickel have rallied significantly in recent weeks.
This quarter, Saudi Arabia may auction deposits of copper and zinc about 170 kilometers (106 miles) from Riyadh, Alkhorayef said. They contain an estimated 26 million tons of reserves, he said.
Maaden said last year it will invest a “huge amount” in battery metals.
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