Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, and Ma’aden, the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East and North Africa region, have announced the signing of non-binding Heads of Terms, which envisages the formation of a mineral exploration and mining joint venture (JV) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The proposed JV would focus on energy transition minerals, including extracting lithium from high concentration deposits and advancing cost-effective direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies. Commercial lithium production could potentially commence by 2027.
The proposed JV is expected to extend Aramco’s capabilities into an adjacent sector, leveraging its technological innovation and skills in resource and data management. It would seek to unlock the potential of the Kingdom’s high-value mineral resources, with the aim of helping meet growing demand for lithium and other transition minerals both domestically and globally. The JV is expected to further harness natural resources utilizing a wealth of subsurface data, as well as emerging technologies, to advance the Kingdom’s economic diversification and energy ambitions.
There is significant potential for the extraction of energy transition minerals in the Kingdom. For example, as part of its operations, Aramco has identified several areas with a high lithium concentration of up to 400 parts per million. The JV is expected to benefit from Aramco’s significant expertise and operations, including the use of existing infrastructure, industry-leading drilling operations, and more than 90 years of geological data in its area of operations.
Nasir K. Al-Naimi, Aramco Upstream President, said: “This announcement reflects Aramco’s focus on positively contributing to the global energy transition. The proposed JV will enable extraction of energy transition minerals, contributing meaningfully to the growth of more sustainable energy solutions while diversifying our portfolio for a lower-carbon future. We expect that this partnership will leverage the world’s leading upstream enterprise to apply significant low-cost advantages, industry experience, technological innovation, accumulated subsurface knowledge and an integrated supply chain ecosystem, with a view to meeting the Kingdom and potentially the world’s projected lithium demand.”
Darryl Clark, Ma’aden Senior Vice President of Exploration, said: “Ma’aden has been undertaking one of the world’s largest single-jurisdiction exploration programs across the Arabian Shield, to unearth the estimated $2.5 trillion mineral endowment. This proposed JV would enable us to accelerate exploration of the Arabian Platform, combining Aramco’s vast knowledge of the area with Ma’aden’s extensive mining and exploration expertise.”
Lithium is a fundamental component of the energy transition, essential for production in fast-growing sectors such as electric vehicles, energy storage, and renewables. The total global demand for lithium has tripled over the past five years, and its compound annual growth rate is anticipated to exceed 15% per annum through 2035. The JV could potentially help meet the Kingdom’s forecasted demand for lithium, which is expected to grow twenty-fold between 2024 and 2030, supporting an estimated 500,000 electric vehicle batteries and 110 GW of renewables.
The planned JV, which is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals, was announced during the Future Minerals Forum today in Riyadh, attended by IM.
In a separate but related development, on January 14, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) announced that its scientists have developed an innovative technology that could place Saudi Arabia at the forefront of the lucrative lithium production industry. The researchers presented their innovative technology in a study published in Science, which describes a method for direct lithium extraction from brine in oilfields and seawater. Lithium is present in these sources at very low concentrations, making it difficult to extract in useful quantities.
However, this new technology makes this otherwise inaccessible lithium extractable on an industrial scale. The technology was demonstrated on a pilot scale 100,000 times larger than that of a university laboratory, and its cost was competitive relative to standard lithium mining extraction techniques. Accessing lithium in brine can expand the availability of lithium worldwide by several hundreds of billions of tons and may transition Saudi Arabia from a major importer to producer of this highly sought-after element.
The innovation, which achieves extraction without introducing any pollutants or additives, can extract lithium from brine at concentrations as low as 20 parts per million — a remarkable achievement that makes lithium extraction economical for sources that contain low lithium concentrations, such as the oilfields of across Saudi Arabia.
“We optimised a redox electrode bridge to harness the osmotic energy generated by the concentration different between the highly saline brine and the recovery solution, reducing the energy consumption in the lithium extraction process,” said KAUST Professor Zhiping Lai, who is also Co-Chair of the KAUST Center of Excellence for Renewable Energy and Storage Technologies and a lead researcher of the project.
He added that these types of innovations can create new value in oilfields, mining and geothermal wells, all sites that produce water that is currently treated as waste.
KAUST startup Lihytech, founded by Lai and his colleague KAUST Professor Kuo-Wei (Andy) Huang, who also contributed to the study, is aiming to bring this technology from laboratory to market. The startup has received an initial investment of $6 million from Ma’aden and the KAUST Innovation Fund (KIV). In September, Lihytech and Aramco announced a partnership in which the international conglomerate is providing brine from its oilfields to test the technology’s lithium extraction capabilities.
“Our goal is to establish a full-scale production and operation and generate significant lithium output within Saudi Arabia by 2028,” said Huang.