Saudi Arabia discovers new gold, copper ore in Madinah

Saudi Arabia announced the discovery of new sites for gold and copper ore deposits in the Madinah region earlier this week.

The Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), represented by the Survey and Mineral Exploration Centre in a Twitter post said that the discoveries of gold deposits were done within the boundaries of the Aba Al-Raha in the Madinah region, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Copper ore was also discovered at four sites in the Al-Madiq area in the Wadi Al-Faraa region in Medina, officials said.

"With our discoveries, we open up more prospects for promising investment opportunities to the world," the kingdom's geological survey wrote on social media.

According to a report by Al Arabiya, the new discoveries are now expected to attract local and international investors and in turn, contribute to the development of the national economy. Officials believe that the newly discovered site has an expected investment of $533 million, and is also expected to generate around 4,000 jobs.

The new discoveries will constitute a qualitative leap for mining in the Kingdom, and open up more prospects for promising investment opportunities, analysts said, as per the outlet.

Saudi Arabia is home to over 5,300 mineral locations, Professor Abdulaziz bin Labon, Chairman of the Saudi Geologists Cooperative Association said in January, adding that these include diverse metal and non-metal rocks, building materials, decorative rocks, and gemstones.

Mining is one of the sectors that has been identified for expansion as part of the Vision 2030 goad established by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. According to Al Arabiya, back in June, the Crown Prince announced the national priorities for the research and development sector. In May, the Kingdom's Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources outlined plans to attract $32 billion of investment into the mining sector.