Saudi Aramco and Maaden Sign Shareholder Agreement to Form Mineral Exploration Joint Venture

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Dimension News, August 18 — Saudi Arabian state oil company Saudi Aramco (Aramco) and Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) have signed a shareholder agreement to establish a joint venture focused on mineral exploration and hard-rock mining within Saudi Arabia. The plan was first disclosed in January 2025, and the signing of the shareholder agreement marks the project's transition from the intention stage to substantive advancement.

Under the agreement, the joint venture will be owned 51% by Maaden and 49% by Saudi Aramco. The exploration area is locked onto "Zone-4" within the Arabian Platform, namely the Transition Zone, covering approximately 182,000 square kilometers, nearly 10% of Saudi Arabia's total land area. This zone extends parallel to the Arabian Shield as a corridor-shaped belt approximately 100 kilometers wide, and is regarded as one of the most promising underexplored areas in the Kingdom.

Copper is the primary target of this exploration. The joint venture will also explore zinc, lead, and rare earth elements, among other critical minerals for the energy transition. According to market data cited by the two partners, copper currently accounts for more than 20% of the global $1.2 trillion mined metals market, with a current market size of approximately $250 billion, expected to exceed $400 billion by 2035.

On the technical front, the joint venture will integrate Saudi Aramco's basin geology and geophysical data accumulated over more than 90 years, combined with artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and advanced algorithms, to rapidly screen exploration areas and pinpoint targets. Maaden will contribute its engineering capabilities in exploration and mine development.

Saleh M. Al Saleh, Saudi Aramco's Vice President of Transitional Minerals, stated that the company has amassed the largest geological and geophysical dataset for a single basin globally, and this collaboration aims to leverage these historical data to search for minerals within the joint venture area. Darryl Clark, Maaden's Executive Vice President of Exploration, stated that both parties will have the opportunity to "move faster and explore smarter," creating new discovery opportunities for minerals needed in the energy transition.

The effectiveness of the shareholder agreement and the formal establishment of the joint venture remain subject to the satisfaction of several conditions precedent, including obtaining necessary corporate and regulatory approvals and antitrust clearances. The joint venture has not yet entered the substantive exploration stage.

The Saudi government estimates the total value of the Kingdom's mineral resources at approximately $2.5 trillion, and is committed to developing mining into a new pillar industry alongside oil and gas. Under the "Saudi Vision 2030" economic diversification plan, Saudi Arabia aims to raise mining's contribution to the economy to 240 billion Saudi riyals (approximately $64 billion) by 2030.