The Saudi Arabian cabinet said the Kingdom is set to discuss a potential agreement with the United States about cooperation in the fields of mining and mineral resources.
This was contained in a statement by the country’s state news agency on Tuesday.
The statement did not provide the details of the memorandum, which according to it would be negotiated by the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources and the United States Department of Energy.
This is coming ahead of a visit by the US President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia next week.
Newspot reports that Saudi Arabia has been rapidly expanding its mining sector as part of its Vision 2030 economic diversification program, which aims to wean the economy off of oil, with gold, phosphate rock and bauxite its main resources.
It has also announced discoveries of extensive domestic resources and last year Saudi officials nearly doubled their estimate for the kingdom’s minerals reserves to $2.5 trillion, largely due to the addition of rare earths.
In April, Saudi Arabia’s flagship mining company Ma’aden was considering choosing at least one of four foreign firms, including a US company, to form a rare earths processing partnership.
The kingdom has also grown its international mining presence, launching a joint venture between its sovereign wealth fund and Ma’aden, called Manara Minerals to invest in mining assets abroad.
