Saudi Arabia says new mining project to increase non-oil GDP by 3%
TURAIF - Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Thursday inaugurated the Waad Al-Shamaal mining project, which is expected to boost the kingdom's gross domestic product by 24-billion riyals and its non-oil GDP by around 3%.
The kingdom will invest 85 billion riyals in the project, a 440 km2 city for mining industries in the northern region, the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources said in a statement.
The completion of the next phase will lift the kingdom's phosphate fertiliser production to nine-million tonnes annually, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said.
"This will make the kingdom the second largest producer of phosphate fertilisers in the world," Falih added.
Mining is key to the kingdom’s efforts to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons, as the government aims to more than triple the sector’s contribution to the nation’s economic output by 2030.
Saudi authorities estimate the region holds 500 million tonnes of phosphate ore, around 7% of global proven reserves, mainly in the Al Jalamid and Umm Wu’al areas between Arar and Turaif.
The energy ministry estimates the kingdom’s unused mineral resources to be valued at five-trillion riyals.
Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said on Thursday that the state oil giant had invested more than 10-billion riyals in developing the first system in the kingdom for producing and supplying unconventional gas.
Such investment is aimed at providing sufficient energy at competitive prices to develop the Waad Al-Shamaal mining project, a statement released by Aramco said.
Saudi Arabia’s efforts to build an economy that does not rely on oil and state subsidies involves a shift towards mining vast untapped reserves of bauxite, the main source of aluminium, as well as phosphate, gold, copper and uranium.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation