Soaring demand for copper will help drive mergers, BHP CEO says
Demand for copper, a key element in the energy transition, is set to rise by 70% to 100% by 2050, Mike Henry said
Ivanhoe Electric, set up by financier Robert Friedland, and India’s Vedanta Ltd. are among eight firms that have been qualified to bid for one of the first exploration licenses in Saudi Arabia as the country seeks to attract $170 billion of investment to develop its mining industry.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources said it had also qualified Alara Saudi Ventures, Al Masane Al Kobra Mining, Essel Mining & Industries, Moxico Resources, Norin Mining and Saudi Arabian Mining Co. to bid for a license to look for metals in Khnaiguiyah, a 350 square-kilometer site expected to contain deposits of zinc and copper.
Mining is a crucial part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attempt to diversify the economy from oil. Still, development has been slow since the kingdom announced in 2018 that its minerals were probably worth $1.3 trillion.
Auctioning the exploration license is part of attempts to kick-start development of the industry and boost the sectors contribution to gross domestic product to $64 billion annually by 2030, more than four times today’s figure of $17 billion, mining minister, Bandar Alkhorayef, said in an interview with Bloomberg in January.
Khnaiguiyah is the largest exploration site in Saudi Arabia, the ministry said, and contains about 25 million tons of ore at 4.11% of zinc and 0.56% of copper.
(By Matthew Martin)
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