Riyadh-listed Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) has awarded a mining services contract to Saudi Arabia-based Jac Rijk Al-Rushaid Contracting at its Mansourah-Massarah gold mine as it looks to boost gold production.
Jac Rijk Al-Rushaid, which already works on Ma’aden’s Ad Duwayhi and As Suq gold mines, will provide services including drilling, scaling and ore control, Ma’aden said in a statement on Sunday. It did not disclose the value of the contract. The US $ 880million project is one of the Ma’aden’s largest gold projects and the latest of six mines owned by its subsidiary Ma’aden Gold and Base Metals Company.
“This investment represents Ma’aden’s commitment to maximising the mining industry’s contribution to the development of local content. In 2020, 74% of Ma’aden’s supply chain was placed with local suppliers and we are now pushing beyond that number,” said the company.
Mining law
The Mansourah-Massarah site is expected to reach full capacity by 2023 upon which it should contribute a quarter of Ma’aden’s production target of 1 million ounces of gold per year by 2025. Ma’aden, which is majority-owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, is key to Riyadh’s ambitions to increase the contribution of the kingdom’s non-oil sectors to its gross domestic product.
Expansion of the country’s industrial and mining sectors is an important part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plans. The kingdom last year approved a mining law to boost foreign direct investment into the sector. The law, which came into effect in January this year, will help the country to explore mineral resources estimated to be worth about US $1.3tn, with 20 million ounces of gold reserves below ground, according to Invest Saudi. Saudi Arabia currently accounts for 37.9 % of the Middle East and Africa’s 60bn riyals metals and mining industry market.
