Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) has announced significant updates in its efforts to explore and unearth Saudi Arabia’s mineral endowment at the Future Minerals Forum 2025, in Riyadh.
The achievement of promising gold and copper intercepts in the Arabian Shield, with a brand-new gold discovery at Wadi Al Jaww and further success at Jabal Shayban, in a first set of drill results indicate an exciting new potential gold and copper district, the company says.
New drilling results from Ma’aden’s flagship Mansourah-Massarah gold mine, meanwhile, show strong gold mineralisation, building on the exploration program’s previous success, the company says.
Ma’aden says it is undertaking one of the world’s largest single-jurisdiction exploration programs in the Arabian Shield.
Ma’aden has a joint venture with Ivanhoe Electric to explore at least 48,500 sq.km of land, covering highly prospective licence areas with potential for major new copper, nickel, gold, silver and other strategic mineral discoveries, Ma’aden says. The JV will deploy IE’s proprietary Typhoon technology and CGI software that, it says, will strengthen Ma’aden’s exploration capabilities and grow its resource base and production pipeline.
Promising gold and copper intercepts at Wadi Al Jaww and Shayban in the Arabian Shield are the first set of drill results in an exciting new potential gold and copper district, according to Ma’aden. the company revealed multiple intercepts of recoverable gold and copper grades in the exploration areas of the Shayban EL at Blocks 6 and 7. The assay results to date indicate wide intersections of gold mineralisation at Wadi Al Jaww and gold and copper mineralisation at Jabal Shayban. Mineralisation at both sites occurs at shallow depths ranging from 20 to 200 m, with the mineralisation extending deeper and in all directions, it said.
Jabal Shayban has long been a hotspot for mineral exploration, with the earliest programs dating back to the 1940s. However, Wadi Al Jaww is a potential brand-new discovery, with no prior exploration work undertaken at the site, the company states. Ma’aden’s potential success at both sites showcases the exceptional capability of Ma’aden’s exploration team to successfully unlock and unearth new potential orebodies in the Kingdom, it added.
The exploration project remains at an early stage, and Ma’aden’s understanding of the mineralised zone is still developing. Ma’aden does not yet have enough information to estimate the size and quality of the mineralisation or to estimate the mineral resource. Work to assess and interpret the data acquired so far is ongoing and will inform drilling activities through 2025.
Ma’aden also announced further results of its drilling programs at its flagship Mansourah-Massarah gold mine, continuing to demonstrate strong gold mineralisation below the current pit design as well as a significant high-grade extension at depth, highlighting the underground potential beneath the current open pits at Mansourah-Massarah. The latest results build on successful gold drilling results at Mansourah-Massarah announced by Ma’aden in December 2023, which showed high grade intercepts including 61 m grading at 10.4 g/t Au and 20 m grading at 20.6 g/t Au within 400 m of the mine.
These latest results show significant high-grade mineralisation has been intersected outside of previously modelled mineralisation domains, at extents up to 220 m below the deepest part of the current open pit mine.
Bob Wilt, CEO of Ma’aden (pictured on the far left), said, “We’ve been making significant investments in exploration in recent years, with the launch of the world’s largest single-jurisdiction mineral exploration programs. Through the work we have undertaken in recent years, the raw prospectivity of the Kingdom has been proven. The results announced today provide a further boost as we continue to accelerate drilling activities across our exploration program in 2025.
“We have committed to establishing mining as the third pillar of the Saudi economy, in line with Vision 2030. These announcements and the progress we continue to drive forward with at pace is indicative to the reality that that has now become. The focus that the kingdom has placed on accelerating the mining and minerals sector has created significant opportunities for growth and development.”
These results continue to strengthen Ma’aden’s view that an underground operation could be sustained at Mansourah-Massarah and drilling is planned for 2025 to further grow and convert mineral resource estimates.