Minerals and Mining

As early as 1,000 BC, the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula extracted gold, silver and copper from the mine called Mahd Al-Dhahab (Cradle of Gold), located about 180 miles northeast of Jeddah. Once one of the greatest gold mines in all of the Middle East and Africa, it is now being worked again as the most advanced project in Saudi Arabia's effort to diversify its sources of income by establishing a mining industry - in 1996, the government committed to an investment of 1.74 billion U.S. dollars to expand the mining industry, especially in phosphates. In fact, modern mineral exploration has unearthed not only silver and copper as well as considerable deposits of gold, but also tin, tungsten, nickel, chrome, zinc, lead, phosphates, iron ore, uranium, bauxite, potassium ore and even table salt. In addition, the Kingdom is probing the mineral-rich sediments on the Red Sea floor for commercial exploitation, with projects to process them at Yanbu.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is playing a major role in developing Saudi Arabia's mineral resources and establishing related industries. Discoveries of minerals, both metallic and non-metallic, suggest that these natural resources will contribute significantly to the Kingdom's continued development in the near future. By 2000, the Ministry had identified 1,270 sources of precious stones and 1,170 sources of other minerals, and was issuing increasing numbers of concessions for mining operations and exploration.