Saudi Arabia's Ma'aden working to extract lithium from seawater | Reuters
Saudi Arabia’s flagship mining company Ma'aden is working to extract lithium from seawater, its chief executive Robert Wilt said on Wednesday, as competition for the rare metal rages between the U.S. and China.
Wilt said Ma'aden, the Gulf's largest miner, is trying to stay above the fray and was "doing what’s best for the kingdom".
"We are working on an initiative to extract lithium from seawater as well as some other things; I would say nothing is of scale, we are still at pilot phase currently," Wilt told Reuters in an interview.
Lithium is a key mineral used for electric car batteries, laptops and smartphones.
Ma’aden is 67% owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, and recently launched Manara Minerals, a joint venture with the PIF, to invest in mining assets abroad.
"We have de-risked our portfolio in terms of broadening exploration and working external to the kingdom to make sure we are resilient no matter what happens geopolitically," Wilt said.
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