Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Mining Affairs, Eng. Khalid Al-Mudaifer said that Saudi Arabia is moving towards pushing the transition to clean energy, as it is estimated that the annual demand for important and necessary minerals for clean energy technologies will reach $400 billion by 2050, due to the high demand for clean energy. He added, during a panel discussion within the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Forum activities, that the Kingdom has embarked on an ambitious program to significantly develop the mining sector and transform the sector to be the third pillar of the industry, emphasizing the Kingdom's interest in environmental sustainability and supporting the global trend to increase the use of clean energy. Eng. Al-Mudaifer highlighted that mining companies will need new areas with the consumption of some minerals-rich areas, and access to new areas may be more difficult, which will increase the need for advanced technologies to facilitate effective targeting and extraction, hence lies the importance of developing and adopting modern technologies in exploration, prospecting and mining methods. He stressed that the Kingdom has been active during the past four years to develop and transform the mining sector through several initiatives and legislation that made the infrastructure of the mining sector in the Kingdom a solid structure that attracts quality investments and increases the Kingdom's domestic product to achieve its goals in the sector and the Kingdom's Vision 2030 goals. Eng. Al-Mudaifer underlined the Kingdom's efforts to transform the mining sector, which was represented in the launch of the largest and most recent regional geological survey in the world covering an area of 700,000 square kilometers of the Arabian Shield, at cost of more than $1.5 billion expected to be spent. He also underlined the launch of the first version of the National Geological Database, which contains 80 years of the geological records in the Kingdom, and the issuance of a fully revised global system (the New Mining Investment System) that is competitive, transparent and clear, and gradually adopts the new principles of environmental, social and institutional governance, and the launch of the Accelerated Exploration Program, to issue licenses to highly qualified and socially responsible investors. This is in addition to developing a digital licensing platform to issue licenses in global standard time, as the Kingdom has processed over the past 20 months to issue 250 detection licenses, approximately equal to the licenses issued in the past 10 years. The FII activities bring together senior officials, policymakers, investors, businessmen, and young leaders from around the world to shape the future of international investment and the global economy. The event was held at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh during the period from Oct. 25 to 27. — SPA
