MADINAH — Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef inspected on Wednesday the progress and work plans of the Kingdom’s largest and oldest gold factory, which is affiliated with the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) and located in Mahad Ad Dhahab in Madinah region.
He was accompanied by a number of industry and mining sector officials.
The minister reviewed the most prominent features of the factory, smelting furnaces and the museum in the old mine, in addition to a presentation on gold.
He also took stock of the workflow in the mine, its expansion plans and work mechanisms. The minister met a number of workers in the mine.
A total of 262 people work in the mine and out of whom 63 percent are Saudis.
The activity of the Mahad Ad Dhahab mine and factory began 3,000 years ago, as artifacts discovered in the mine indicated that it was used three thousand years ago, where large quantities were extracted around the year 950 BC, a period that coincided with the reign of Sheba in Yemen and the era of Prophet Sulaiman (peace be upon him).
The mining operations began in the 1930s, however, they entered a new phase during the reign of King Fahd in 1983. The mine has many minerals such as gold silver, copper and zinc concentrates. The amount extracted from the mine of raw materials between 1988 and 2020 approximately reached 5,989 million tons, in addition to 2.5 million ounces of gold and 9.8 million ounces of silver.
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