Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Mining Affairs Eng. Khalid bin Saleh Al Mudayfar expressed his pride in what was taken by the Kingdom's government under the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the leadership of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, for the wise precautionary decisions and measures that gave priority to the health of citizens and expatriates in light of facing the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, stressing that the mining sector in the Kingdom immediately applied these precautionary decisions and measure. This came during a virtual meeting organized by the Council of Saudi Chambers today. Eng. Al-Mudayfar said that the measures taken by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources in this regard were focused on supporting investors who hold mineral licenses, and among these initiatives was the postponement of collection of financial claims for the fiscal year 2019 for a period of two months, where the total cost of this delay amounted to about half a billion riyals. This postponement contributes to the sustainability of the sector, providing cash flows to investors, and ensuring the continuity of their contribution to economic growth. Eng. Al-Mudayfar indicated that the Kingdom is one of the least spending countries in exploration of minerals in the world, where today we spend less than 25% of the rate of global spending on exploration per km2. Eng. Khaled Al-Mudayfar pointed out that by developing mining investment and achieving optimal exploitation of mineral resources, the mining sector becomes the third pillar in the Saudi industry alongside the petroleum and petrochemical industries, so that the mining industry's contribution to the Kingdom's GDP will reach 240 billion riyals, raise the state's revenues from this sector by more than 8.9 billion riyals and generate 219,000 new jobs by 2030.
