Riyadh January 23 2025: Saudi Arabia faces a pivotal moment in its push to build a metals and mining hub, with foreign players still showing more hunger for the kingdom’s cash than a willingness to deploy their capital.
As the metals industry gathered for the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh last week, at least a dozen attendees that commented to Bloomberg spoke of their desire to court Saudi money rather than invest in the nation just yet. Many awaited details on how talk of big deals and plans for metals plants are playing out on the ground.
“We’re at the show me stage,” said Mark Selby, Chief Executive Officer for Canada Nickel Co., which is hoping to draw investment to a mine in Ontario and considering a JV with Middle East players. “There’s a lot of stuff in progress but there is yet to be many shovels in the ground.”
Saudi Arabia touted $100 billion of local investment opportunities at the event and estimates it has $2.5 trillion in mineral resources to be dug up. Its dream is to make metals and mining the so-called “third pillar” of the local economy as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s push to diversify beyond oil and petrochemicals.
Adding minerals exploration and processing would also help supply dozens of mega projects and ease inflated import costs that are squeezing the country’s finances.
To drive its ambitions, Saudi Arabia tasked the mining company known as Maaden with growing the domestic industry and started Manara Minerals in 2023 to snap up overseas assets. But Manara has so far completed just one major deal — with Brazilian mining company Vale — and the country has drawn few major miners to Saudi soil.
