| 16 Sep 2007 |
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Saudi Arabia: 1,270 mining licenses in 2006
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Riyadh, September 16, SPA -- A total of 1,270 mining licenses were existent last year including 196 new ones issued for various activities such as quarrying, reconnaissance, prospecting and mining.
This has been disclosed in a report prepared recently by Engineer Ali Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and submitted to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, the Jeddah-based Saudi Gazette reported today.
These licenses, which covered more than 155,000 square kilometers distributed in all regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were 72 more than what was reported in 2005.
The report, which contains data and recent developments about the Kingdom's mining sector, also noted revenues of mining-related industries reached SR13.5 billion in 2006 while profits were at SR4.5 billion. Investments meanwhile reached SR40 billion during the said year.
Up to 300 million tons of mineral ores were exploited in 2006 compared with 265 million tons, of which 5 million tons were allowed to be shipped abroad together with 440,000 cubic meters of decoration stones.
Of the new licenses, Al-Naimi said in his report that 152 were for building material quarries, 122 for reconnaissance, 6 for prospecting, 3 for marble quarries, 9 for small quarries and 4 for mining.
As to the renewed licenses, they reached 289 of different kinds of mining licenses. Therefore, the total valid mining licenses by the end of 2006 reached 1270 with an increase of 72 licenses compared to 2005.
Al-Naimi also said the ministry conducted over 550 field tours reserving the mineralized zones, monitor the activities of licensees to make sure they were complying with the technical, legal and environmental criteria.
He said the ministry coordinated with concerned local government units such as Riyadh, Makkah, MadinaH, Jouf, the Najran regions and the Eastern Province for reserving complexes where granite, gypsum, silica sand, porcelain and quarry materials and other building materials can be mined.
The ministry also carried out surveys in 32 approved complexes in where gold ore, granite, magnesite, clay, quarry materials and ordinary sand can be exploited, the report said.
Among the ministry's other functions, it distributed over 13,000 copies of technical publications and bulletins in Arabic and English to the investors and participants in their symposia and conferences.
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