RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources announced that Saudi Arabian Mining Company Ma’aden and Barrick Gold Ltd alliance have obtained a license to explore the mining site of Umm al-Damar.
The ministry said that under the Accelerated Exploration Initiative, the site attracted the interest of more than 20 local and international mining companies for an exploration license, 13 of which qualified for the bidding stage.
After fulfilling the qualification criteria, the most important of which are technical expertise, financial ability, commitment to community and environmental management plans and related work programs, the ministry said that it had received two bids to compete for a license to explore the Umm Al-Damar mining site.
The ministry said that the bidding stage witnessed strong competition between the leading mining companies internationally, and that the alliance confirmed its commitment to meeting the evaluation criteria.
The alliance confirmed that they will follow the mining rules which emphasize on enhancing spending on exploration in the Kingdom and developing local mining sites’ neighboring communities.
The ministry said that Ma’aden and Baric alliance have committed on spending more than US$12. million (SAR 47 million) to conduct several works to accelerate exploration at the site, including drilling over 54,000 meters and implementing an integrated geophysical and chemical survey at the Umm Al-Damar site.
The ministry added that the alliance will allocate over $0.26 million (SAR 1 million) to various community initiatives, which include the employing neighboring communities, the development of the local technical college in the governorate of Mahd Al-Dahab, the training of graduates during the two-year exploration program.
The community initiative also include practical training for six university students and sponsoring one of the programs School sciences, in addition to a safety awareness program.
The Umm al-Damar site is located 300 km northeast of Jeddah and 25 km northwest of the city of Mahd al-Dahab, on the Jabal Sayed mining belt.
The continuous exploration activities at the site represent an important milestone in transforming the mining sector in the Kingdom into the third pillar of the national economy, within the framework of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.