Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) said it has found a "significant gold resource potential extending along a 100km strike from the existing Mansourah Massarah gold mine."

This is the first find from the company’s extensive exploration program, launched in 2022, Maaden said in a statement.

Mansourah Massarah is a mining project by Maaden in the Central Arabian Gold Region that extends from the Red Sea coast to the middle of Saudi Arabia. 

"Exploration around Mansourah Massarah has focused on identifying potential deposits of similar scale with similar geology. Encouraging drill results from multiple sites on Uruq South, along a 100km stretch south of Mansourah Massarah, have uncovered similar geological characteristics and chemistry to the Mansourah Massarah deposit," Maaden said.

Maaden has also continued exploration at the Jabal Ghadarah and Bir Tawilah prospects, 25km north of Mansourah Massarah, where it is converting an inferred resource of 1.5 million ounces to indicated and measured status, the statement said.

Robert Wilt, CEO, Ma’aden said: “These discoveries have the potential to be the center of the world’s next gold rush and are a strong part of our growth strategy. The Arabian Shield has enormous potential for more world class discoveries, and this is the first of many we expect to make in the coming years."

"In combination, these positive drilling results have identified a potentially 125km strike with significant potential to become a major world class gold belt in Saudi Arabia," the kingdom's largest mining company said in the statement.

Mansourah Massarah had stated gold resources of almost seven million ounces at year-end 2023 and nameplate production capacity of 250,000 ounces a year. 

In August, Maaden awarded a 105 million riyals ($28 million) construction contract to Sharjah-based Darkstone, a specialist in industrial mechanical and electrical maintenance, construction and MEP works for Phase 2 of Mansourah Massarah gold project in Saudi Arabia.

Maaden swung to a net loss of SAR83.4 ($22.2 million) in Q3 2023 from a net profit of SAR 2.1 billion in the year-earlier period mainly due to lower realised sales prices for most of its products.

(Writing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com; editing by Daniel Luiz)