Saudi Arabia to Propose Investment Opportunities in Six Mining Locations

Engineers explore a min in Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
Engineers explore a min in Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia to Propose Investment Opportunities in Six Mining Locations

Engineers explore a min in Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
Engineers explore a min in Saudi Arabia. (SPA)

The mining sector in Saudi Arabia is witnessing growth and development with more investment opportunities expected to be proposed in 2024.

Six locations will be the targets of the fifth round of exploration. They include gold, copper and zinc and span an area of 940 square kms.

Assistant Deputy Minister for Mining Enablement at the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources Abdulrahman AlBelushi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the ministry has granted over 500 exploration licenses.

Exploration has witnessed a qualitative leap and it is reaching new heights year after year, he added. This has paved the way for the development of new mines.

The development can all be credited to the amendment of the mining investment regulation, he stated.

Saudi Arabia’s mining wealth is estimated at SAR9.6 trillion (USD2.5 trillion), he went on to say.

He underscored the importance of the optimal exploitation of this wealth so that it can become part of national industries and so that its products can help grow industrial cities in target areas such as cars and planes.

On the Arabian Shield region, AlBelushi said the Saudi Geological Survey has carried out extensive work in the area, using various geophysical and geochemical tools.

Work is underway to develop accurate maps of this work, he revealed.

Saudi Arabia boasts massive mineral wealth, and it will be explored through every mean possible, he stressed.

Saudi Arabia has sought to develop the mining sector in recent years. It launched the largest and most modern geological survey in the world, covering an area of 600,000 kms of the Arabian Shield.



EU Begins Easing Syria Energy, Transport and Banking Sanctions

Syrian children play in the heavily damaged Baba Amr neighborhood following the return of their families to the central Syrian city of Homs on February 10, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
Syrian children play in the heavily damaged Baba Amr neighborhood following the return of their families to the central Syrian city of Homs on February 10, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
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EU Begins Easing Syria Energy, Transport and Banking Sanctions

Syrian children play in the heavily damaged Baba Amr neighborhood following the return of their families to the central Syrian city of Homs on February 10, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
Syrian children play in the heavily damaged Baba Amr neighborhood following the return of their families to the central Syrian city of Homs on February 10, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

The European Union on Monday began easing energy and transport sanctions and banking restrictions against Syria, aiming to help breathe life into the conflict-torn country’s economy if its new leaders work toward a peaceful future.
The EU started to impose asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials, banks, agencies and other organizations in 2011, in response to then-President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on protesters, which festered into a civil war.
But after Assad was toppled in a lightning opposition offensive in December, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), now in control of Syria, set up an interim administration, saying that a new government would be formed through an inclusive process by March.
Eager to encourage the new leadership, the EU said it was suspending measures targeting oil, gas and electricity as well as transport, and notably the aviation sector. The possibility to fund and provide certain economic resources to five banks will be reinstated.
Restrictions on the export of luxury goods to Syria for personal use will also be eased, The Associated Press reported.
The decision to lift the sanctions was taken by EU foreign ministers and was made as part of efforts “to support an inclusive political transition in Syria, and its swift economic recovery, reconstruction, and stabilization,” a statement said.
The EU said that it would monitor developments in Syria to see whether other economic sanctions could be lifted, but it has also kept open the possibility of slapping the sanctions back on should the new leaders take the country in the wrong direction.
In January, former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa was named Syria’s interim president after a meeting of most of the country’s former opposition factions. The groups agreed to dissolve the country’s constitution, the former national army, security service and official political parties.
International pressure has mounted for al-Sharaa to follow through on promises of an inclusive political transition. UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen has said the formation of a “new inclusive government” by March 1 could help determine whether Western sanctions are lifted.