Saudi Arabia issued 38 mining permits in November as part of a landmark mining investment law it issued two years ago to attract capital into its lucrative minerals industry, according to official data. 

The new permits included 24 licences for mineral exploration, 13 for building materials industry and one permit for raw material production, the Industry and Mineral Resources Ministry said in a report published by Aliqtisadia and other Saudi dailies. 

The new licences brought to 2,201 the total number of mining permits awarded by the Ministry to local and foreign firms seeking to tap the Gulf Kingdom’s minerals sector, with an estimated value of 5 trillion riyals ($1.33 trillion). 

Saudi Arabia, which controls the world’s second largest extractable crude deposits, began enforcing a landmark mining investment law in 2020 within its economic diversification scheme known as Vision 2030. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)