Officials and investors emphasized on Wednesday the importance to uncover the Kingdom’s mining wealth, given the gap the world faces in the need for minerals and renewable energy.
During the first day of the International Mining Conference in Riyadh, senior officials and heads of major international companies said Saudi Arabia was a stable source of energy, shedding light on the Kingdom’s insightful vision of the importance of the mining sector.
Grant Shapps, British Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pointed to the presence of 14 strategic minerals in Saudi Arabia, underlining the importance of the global conference, which has brought together many investors in the world to discuss the future of mining.
Eng. Naseer Ahamed, Sri Lankan Minister of Environment and Foreign Investment Promotion, unveiled new legislation in his country, which seeks to facilitate investment and monitoring in the sector.
Benedikt Sobotka, CEO of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), stressed the importance of the demographic dividend and the power of the youth in Saudi Arabia, noting that Riyadh would not face a problem in finding young national competencies in the mining sector.
Robert Friedland, founder and CEO of the Canadian Ivanhoe Mines Group, stated that Saudi Arabia was a stable source of energy, applauding the great progress achieved by the Kingdom in this promising economic sector.
Speaking at the second session of the international conference, Mike Henry, CEO of Australian Global Resources Company BHP, expressed optimism about the future of the mining sector, saying that the world would need up to three times more iron, nickel and other strategic minerals.
Dominic Barton, President of Rio Tinto, touched on the most pressing issue of the current era: the gap between the world’s needs of minerals and renewable energy.
Neil Crompton, the US ambassador to the Kingdom, revealed that the provision of strategic minerals was necessary to achieve the energy transition, noting that the US and Saudi Arabia were working to achieve this goal in a sustainable manner and in accordance with appropriate environmental standards.
He added that countries have learned lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic about the importance of reliable supply chains that require appropriate international coordination, stressing that Saudi Arabia was moving forward in this direction and was one of the 10 largest partners of the United States.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nayef Al-Hajraf, Secretary General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, pointed to the great efforts led by Saudi Arabia to shed light on the importance of mining sector.
He also praised the hosting the International Mining Conference in its second edition at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, under the auspices of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and with the participation of more than 60 countries from around the world.
Al-Hajraf emphasized that the conference was an opportunity for the countries to present their efforts to promote the sector, benefit from experiences and exchange knowledge, as well as increasing the contribution of mining sector in the future.
Al-Hajraf drew attention to the Kingdom’s leading role in energy supplies, indicating that the conference constituted a comprehensive international platform to provide opportunities for investors, mining companies and stakeholders in the sector to discuss economic developments and global environmental impacts on the metals industry.
He added that the conference will discuss environmental and social practices and equal opportunities, and the means to build a sustainable mining industry, by examining the huge geological potential of the targeted areas, with the aim to achieve fruitful cooperation in this important field.
