Saudi Arabia has issued 9 mining permits with total investments of more than 30 billion Saudi riyals ($8 billion) since it began enforcing a landmark law to exploit its massive mineral resources in 2020, a Saudi official was quoted on Thursday as saying. 

The Gulf Kingdom, the world largest oil exporter, has also granted 157 licenses for metal exploration out of 700 applications received by its new online mining investment platform, said Khalid Al-Midaifir, Deputy Industry and Mineral Resources Minister. 

“We have approved 157 applications for metal exploration…we have also issued 9 mining investment permits in various areas of the Kingdom with a total investment of around 30 billion riyals,” Midaifir told the Saudi Aleqtisadia newspaper. 

Speaking at a mining conference in Riyadh on Wednesday, Saudi Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Bandar Al-Khurayyef estimated the mineral wealth in the Kingdom at more than 1.3 trillion riyals ($346 billion). 

He said the new mining investment law aims to attract local and foreign capital to the burgeoning sector as part of an economic diversification strategy, adding that the Ministry has set a target of boosting the mining sector’s contribution to gross domestic product from an estimated $17 billion currently to $64 billion by the end of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic scheme. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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