Aramco and Maaden have announced their intention to form a joint venture focused on mineral exploration and hard rock mining across Saudi Arabia. The Saudi copper mining venture brings together deep geological knowledge and proven mining expertise to develop the Kingdom’s untapped mineral resources.
The two companies have signed a shareholders’ agreement to combine their strengths across copper and other critical minerals. Under the proposed structure, Maaden would hold 51% ownership and Aramco 49%.
Aramco and Maaden Advance Mining Venture
The planned mining joint venture will target exploration across Zone-4, known as the Transition Zone, within the Arabian Platform. The exploration area spans approximately 182,000 square kilometres, covering nearly 10% of Saudi Arabia’s total land area.
Maaden Executive Vice President for Exploration Darryl Clark said the company is focused on unlocking the Kingdom’s mineral potential through targeted exploration. “This joint venture would take that ambition into a new area,” Clark said. “By combining Ma’aden’s exploration and development expertise with Aramco’s extraordinary knowledge of the Arabian Platform, we would have an opportunity to move faster, explore smarter, and create new opportunities to discover the minerals that will power the energy transition.”
Aramco Vice President of Transition Minerals Saleh M Al Saleh pointed to the company’s extensive geological dataset, describing it as the largest amount of geological and geophysical data ever acquired for a single basin in the Kingdom. “This partnership intends to leverage this legacy information to find minerals in the JV area within the basin. Ma’aden’s expertise, our people, high-performance computing, and AI are expected to play a pivotal role in accelerating the discovery of key transition minerals at low cost,” Al Saleh said.
Joint Venture Targets Mineral Exploration and Hard Rock Mining
Copper will be the primary focus for the Saudi copper mining venture. Aramco noted that copper makes up over 20% of the US$1.2 trillion mined metals market, reflecting its importance as a key material in the energy transition.
Maaden already holds a copper-focused joint venture with Barrick Mining at the Jabal Sayid copper operation, located 350 kilometres northeast of Jeddah. That operation shipped its first copper concentrate in December 2015 and began commercial production in July 2016. In 2023, Barrick signed additional joint venture agreements with Maaden for two prospective exploration projects, Jabal Sayid South and Umm Ad Damar, expanding the mineral exploration footprint in Saudi Arabia mining.
Saudi Partnership Supports Mining Sector Expansion
The Saudi copper mining venture aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which recognises mining as a key pillar of the Kingdom’s national economy. The strategy focuses on developing a sustainable mining industry and mineral value chains by leveraging vast resources, local demand and access to global markets.
At the time of the Barrick agreements in 2023, the companies noted a commitment to realising the Saudi Arabian Government’s vision of growing a diversified mining industry. The latest move by Aramco and Maaden to pursue hard rock mining across such a large area reflects continued momentum in Saudi Arabia mining development and mineral exploration.