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Engineer Khalid Al-Mudaifer, Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Mining Affairs in Saudi Arabia, said the aerial geophysical survey of the Arab Shield will be implemented in three phases over six years, including the first is three years, and includes most of the area of the Arabian shield, while the second phase lasts two years and covers about a third of the area of the Arab shield, and the third and final has a duration of one year , and covers some targeted areas for study and data collection.
Al-Mudaifer added to Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper, that it is difficult to fully explain the number of minerals in the Kingdom, but there is work on continuous geological studies, and currently Saudi Arabia has more than 80 types of minerals in various stages of reliability and knowledge of stocks, but only about 7-8% so far.
He pointed out that the value of unexploited minerals alone was estimated at 5,000 billion riyals ($ 1.3 trillion), and this is preliminary information, considering that more mineral reserves may be discovered, as all the factors and data that attract investors to mining From inside and outside the Kingdom, whether it is the regulatory and legislative structure or the precise structure of the geological data that will be released available to investors and persons interested in the exploration and extraction of all types of minerals on the lands of the Kingdom.
Al-Mudaifer added that the Arab Shield Aerial Geophysical Survey, which covers an area of up to 600,000 square kilometers of the kingdom’s area, aims to process, analyze and interpret high-resolution geophysical data of the Arab Shield in various pathways, including radiometric magnetism, spectral radioactivity, electromagnetism, and gravitational gravity.
And he said that 352 mining licenses were eventually issued from the issuance of the new mining investment system, bringing the total number of licenses to 1,816 mining licenses, while applications for mining licenses reached 1,311 applications to this day, indicating that this indicates the enormous potential and great opportunities that the mining sector can offer to the economy.
He added: “For example, for building material quarry licenses, around 749 applications have been considered, and up to mid-August, 196 building material quarry licenses had been issued.
He continued: “As for exploration permits, 530 applications have been studied and 126 permits have been issued. With regard to mining permits, 17 applications have been studied, and the Ministry has issued 274 permits since the beginning of this year, including eight permits with average investments estimated at 250 million riyals. “
Al-Mudaifer pointed out that there is an effort to reach 115 billion riyals as a cumulative target by 2025, and the volume of current investments in the mining sector is estimated between 170 and 180 billion riyals, and it is expected that investments will double by 150% until 2030.
Last Tuesday, Al-Mudaifer inaugurated the first geophysical survey aircraft in Dawadmi governorate in the Riyadh region, announcing the start of geophysical survey work in the Arab Shield region.
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