Saudi Aramco and Maaden Establish a Joint Mineral Research Project Covering an Area of ​​182 Thousand Km²

Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco and Saudi mining company Maaden announced that they plan to establish a joint venture for mineral exploration in an area of ​​182 thousand km². According to Reuters' special report, research will focus mainly on copper, zinc, lead and rare earth elements.

The works will take place in an area of ​​approximately 182 thousand square kilometers, which corresponds to approximately 10 percent of the total land area of ​​Saudi Arabia. It is expected that 51 percent of the joint venture will belong to Maaden and 49 percent to Aramco.

"Aramco has accumulated and analyzed the largest collection of geological and geophysical data obtained in a single basin for the Kingdom for over 90 years. This partnership aims to leverage this information to find minerals in the joint venture field within the basin. Maaden's expertise, our people, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence are expected to play a pivotal role in accelerating the discovery of important transition minerals at low cost," Saleh M. Al Saleh of Aramco said in the statement.

"Maaden is advancing one of the world's largest single-jurisdiction exploration programs to help unlock the Kingdom's mineral potential. This joint venture will take that goal into new territory. By combining Maaden's exploration and development expertise with Aramco's exceptional knowledge of the Arab Platform, we will have the opportunity to move faster, explore smarter, and create new opportunities to discover minerals that will support the energy transition," said Darryl Clark, Maaden's Executive Vice President of Exploration.

Saudi Arabia has long worked to secure critical minerals such as copper and lithium, which are vital for electric vehicles and renewable energy.