Riyadh,
SPA — The third Future Minerals Forum (FMF), held under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, opened today at the King Abdulaziz International Convention Center in Riyadh.
Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Ibrahim Alkhorayef, speaking at the opening of the event, stressed the wise leadership’s keenness to see the forum achieve success and desired goals, and thanked the leaders and decision makers in the industrial sector from various countries for taking part in the two-day event.
Alkhorayef also announced that the estimated mineral wealth value of the Kingdom increased by 90%, to reach an equivalent of SAR9.375 trillion, due to the discoveries of rare earth elements and transition metals such as phosphate ore, zinc, and gold. That is substantially up from the previous estimates of SAR5 trillion, announced in 2016.
The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources said that 30% of the geological survey work in the Arabian Shield region was completed, and that the results will be available in the national geological database.
The General Program for the Geological Survey Initiative aims to raise the quality of data and the accuracy of geological maps, to enhance and facilitate the exploration of mineral resources in the Kingdom, Alkhorayef noted.
–SPA
