Saudi Arabia explores investment opportunities with Chinese mining companies

Dubai: Saudi Arabia is exploring joint investment opportunities with Chinese mining companies, according to Bandar Al Khorayef, the country’s minister of mineral resources.

Saudi Arabia is interested in collaborating on the processing and production of lithium for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, as well as in the processing and refining of copper, and aims to produce 500,000 EVs annually by 2030, as reported by the Saudi Press Agency.

Last year, Riyadh granted a licence to Ceer, the first Saudi EV brand, and Lucid Motors established its first EV manufacturing plant in the country. Ceer, a joint venture between Taiwanese technology firm Foxconn and the Public Investment Fund, has secured a $1.3 billion (Dh4.7 billion) contract to build an EV complex in King Abdullah Economic City, with production expected to commence by 2025.

Lithium, primarily used in battery manufacturing, is extracted through two main methods: mining metal-bearing rocks, which contributed about 57 per cent of global supply in 2023, and distillation from brine, which accounts for the remainder.

In the Middle East, major copper markets include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran, which together represent approximately 5 per cent of global copper consumption, or between 1,200 and 1,250 kilo tonnes annually.