Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources announced on Tuesday the qualification of 24 local and international companies and consortia to participate in the Kingdom’s 10th exploration licensing round following the completion of technical and financial evaluations.

Round 10 covers three mineralised belts covering a total area of 13,000 square kilometres (sq km) distributed across five regions: Madinah, Makkah, Riyadh, Qassim and Hail.

Jarrah bin Mohammed Al Jarrah, official spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, said the competition includes new exploration sites extending from mineralised belts offered in the ninth round. These include:

  • The Nabithah/Ad Duwayhi (Dahlat Shabeb) Belt, home to the Ad Duwayhi Mine, which produces around 180,000 ounces of gold annually
  • The Sukhaybarat/Al-Safra Belt, a highly prospective zone for gold, copper, silver, zinc, and nickel, hosting advanced projects such as the Sukhaybarat and Bulghah mines
  • The Al-Nuqrah Belt, known for its significant gold deposits and copper- and zinc-rich volcanic massive sulfide (VMS) mineralisation.

Al Jarrah said the list of qualified bidders includes 17 participants from the previous round, in addition to 7 companies qualifying for the first time.

The newly qualified participants include:

  1. Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden)
  2. Canada’s Aton Resources
  3. Indonesia’s ANTAM
  4. Canada’s Power Metallic Mines
  5. Canada’s Wildsky Resources
  6. Consortium of Australia’s Danakali and Saudi’s Masadar Al-Zamarda for Mining (Emerald)
  7. Consortium of Saudi’s Anaam Al Qarat Trading Company and Sudan’s Sahara Mining Company, and Saudi’s Thurb Al-Hayya for Trading Company

Under the exploration licensing competition guidelines, pre-qualification remains valid for one calendar year. This allows eligible bidders to participate in subsequent licensing rounds during the validity period and enables greater participation in the Kingdom's expanding pipeline of exploration opportunities.

The list of 17 bidders previously pre-qualified under Round 9 includes: India’s Vedanta; Australia’s Midana Exploration, Jacaranda Minerals, and DesertEx;  US-based Sierra Nevada Gold; Saudi’s Royal Road Arabia, The Distinguished Consortium Mining Company, Batin Al Ard for Gold Company; Saudi Gold Refinery (SGR) and Al Ghazal Al Arabi Mining Company; UAE-based Almasar Minerals Holding; Saudi-Indonesian JV Eqleed-Indotan Mining Company; Canada’s Helderberg, and Sun Peak Metals;  Oman’s Al Tasnim Enterprises; China’s China National Geological and Mining Corporation; and Uzbekistan’s Aurum Global Group.

The next phase of Round 10 will see qualified bidders select available exploration sites through the Taadeen platform.

In January 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources had announced that 24 companies and consortia won licences in the ninth exploration licensing round. The winning entities were awarded 172 mining sites across three mineralised belts in Riyadh, Madinah, and Qassim regions.

Saudi Arabia’s 10th round represents continued efforts to accelerate exploration aimed at unlocking the Kingdom’s estimated $2.5 trillion mineral wealth.

(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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