Saudi Arabia’s expanding licence register shows that its mining reforms are attracting activity. It does not yet prove that the Kingdom has created a large new mineral-producing industry.
The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources issued 80 licences in March 2026. These comprised 49 exploration licences, 20 building-material quarry licences, eight mining and small-mine exploitation licences, two reconnaissance licences and one licence covering surplus mineral materials.
The composition matters. More than 60% of the new permits were for exploration, while only eight authorised mining or small-mine exploitation.
This is not a weakness in itself. Exploration must precede development, and Saudi Arabia is attempting to build a pipeline rather than depend on a limited number of established operations. But it places the country at the beginning of a process in which geological targets must still be drilled, defined, financed, permitted and connected to infrastructure.
The central test is therefore no longer whether Saudi Arabia can issue licences. It is whether the system can convert those licences into economically viable mines.
From administrative reform to geological risk
Saudi Arabia’s current mining framework is built around the Mining Investment Law, which came into effect in 2021. Licensing and competitive opportunities are administered through the Ministry and the Ta’adeen digital platform.
The reforms have helped increase investor participation and bring additional mineral areas to market. Saudi Arabia reported a 220% rise in new exploitation licences during 2025, with 61 issued compared with 19 in 2024.
The Ministry said investments associated with the 2025 licences exceeded SAR44 billion, approximately US$11.7 billion, and included gold and phosphate projects.
Saudi Arabia estimates the value of its mineral resources at more than SAR9.4 trillion, or about US$2.5 trillion. That figure communicates geological ambition, but it should not be confused with recoverable reserves, project value or future revenue.
A mineral-resource valuation does not establish how much material can be economically extracted. That requires deposit-level exploration, metallurgical testing, mine design, environmental approval, infrastructure planning and detailed capital estimates.
As Saudi Arabia’s licence base grows, the quality and publication of geological results will become more significant than the number of permits awarded.
Government is sharing exploration risk
One of the most consequential elements of the Saudi model is the Exploration Enablement Program.
The third wave of the programme offered qualifying companies cash incentives of up to 25% of eligible exploration expenditure, including drilling, laboratory testing and geological studies. It also provided employment support tied to locally based personnel, subject to the programme’s conditions.
This addresses a familiar mining-finance problem: exploration capital is high-risk and often difficult to secure before a commercially defined deposit exists.
Government support can encourage companies to drill targets that might otherwise remain untouched. It can also produce geological information that strengthens the wider national database, particularly where programme rules require eventual data submission and publication.
But public support must remain linked to measurable work.
The critical indicators include metres drilled, expenditure completed, geological data produced, resources defined and licences relinquished when work obligations are not met. Without such discipline, a rapidly expanding licence register can encourage speculative holding rather than genuine exploration.
Competitive bidding raises the quality threshold
Saudi Arabia increasingly uses competitive licensing for selected mineralised areas. Prospective investors may be required to pass prequalification based on financial strength, technical capability and legal standing before submitting bids.
This approach can help prevent strategic deposits from being allocated to companies that lack the capacity to explore or develop them.
It also changes the nature of competition. Companies are not evaluated solely on the amount they are prepared to pay. Their exploration programmes, technical teams, financing capacity, environmental commitments and contribution to local economic development may all influence the outcome.
For international miners, entry into the Saudi market therefore requires more than identifying prospective geology. They must also navigate local corporate structures, licence conditions, funding obligations, data requirements and partnership arrangements.
The presence of Saudi Arabian Mining Company, Ma’aden, provides the Kingdom with a national mining company capable of participating in major projects. Local industrial groups and investment institutions can also support joint ventures.
The danger is that complex partnership and approval structures can slow execution if ownership, funding responsibility, data control and decision-making authority are not established early.
Infrastructure will decide which discoveries become mines
Exploration success is only the first commercial threshold.
A deposit must have access to power, water, roads, rail or ports, depending on the commodity and intended processing route. The availability of skilled workers, laboratories, drilling contractors, maintenance services and processing expertise will also affect development schedules.
Saudi Arabia has an advantage in its ability to coordinate mining with wider industrial, energy and logistics policy. Its mining ambition is connected to domestic processing and manufacturing rather than limited to the extraction of raw material.
That coordination could improve project economics where several mines share infrastructure or supply minerals into domestic industrial facilities.
It could also produce inefficient investment if infrastructure is developed ahead of sufficient geological confidence. The sequencing between discovery, feasibility work and industrial construction will therefore matter.
What African mining jurisdictions can take from the model
Saudi Arabia’s experience is relevant to African mineral-producing countries, but it should not be treated as a template that can simply be copied.
Many African governments already administer extensive exploration and mining titles. The policy challenge is often not the scarcity of licences but the limited progression from licences to sustained exploration and production.
Several elements of the Saudi approach merit attention:
- Digital access to licensing information
- Competitive allocation of high-potential areas
- Prequalification of bidders
- Time-bound exploration commitments
- Support for drilling and geological studies
- Publication of exploration data
- Coordination between mining, infrastructure and industrial policy
For the DRC, the strongest lesson concerns geological information and licence performance.
A country can possess highly prospective ground while still depending heavily on company-controlled or historically fragmented exploration data. Stronger national geological databases and enforceable work obligations could help distinguish active explorers from companies holding permits primarily for their option value.
However, Saudi Arabia’s fiscal capacity allows it to subsidise exploration and construct infrastructure at a scale that many African governments cannot easily match. African jurisdictions may need to rely more heavily on transparent licensing, development-finance institutions, shared infrastructure and private risk capital.
The goal should not be to maximise the number of titles. It should be to improve the proportion of credible titles supported by financing, technical work and defined development schedules.
The conversion rate will tell the real story
Saudi Arabia has succeeded in generating attention around its mining sector. More exploration companies are entering the market, licence issuance has increased and the government is using financial incentives to reduce early-stage risk.
The next phase will be less visible and more demanding.
Investors will need to make discoveries. Resources must become reserves. Projects must secure financing, infrastructure and offtake. Domestic processing ambitions must be matched with sufficient feedstock and competitive operating costs.
Future assessments of Saudi Arabia’s mining strategy should therefore look beyond the monthly licence count.
The most meaningful indicators will be exploration expenditure completed, discoveries made, resources defined, construction decisions approved and commercial mines brought into production.
Licensing creates the opportunity. Conversion determines whether it becomes an industry.
