Saudi Arabia’s Energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the Kingdom will not sacrifice energy security for the sake of energy transformation…reports Asian Lite News
The minister made the remarks at the Future Minerals Forum, hosted by the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, in Riyadh as he discussed how developing the Kingdom’s mining sector could help with economic and environmental transitions, the Arab News reported.
He also highlighted the importance of uranium to Saudi’s power plans.
Prince Abdulaziz was bullish when it came to the use of nuclear power in the energy mix, telling delegates at the conference: “We have a huge amount of uranium resource, which we would like to exploit and put in the most transparent way.
“We will bring partners and we will be exporting and manufacturing and developing it and we will be commercially monetizing that resource,” the Arab News quoted Prince Abdulaziz as saying.
Referring to the drive to move the Saudi away from its reliance on oil, he said: “We should not forfeit energy security for the sake of a publicity stunts — that transition needs to be well thought.
“Let’s not forfeit energy security for moving away from the classical concern of over-reliance in the Middle East when it comes to oil to different types of energy security challenges which has to do with availability of these minerals and the concentration of the ownerships of those minerals, the report quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, Governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) Yasir bin Othman Al-Rumayyan stressed that many of the future industries depend on the mining sector, noting that the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa are considered the main regions for mining.
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During his virtual participation in a side meeting in the Future Minerals Forum, he said that the mining sector is the third pillar of the national economy, noting that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has enormous natural resources and promising opportunities in investment in the potentials of the mining sector.
He pointed out that PIF considers mining one of the main strategic sectors with great importance to realize the Saudi Vision 2030 goals, adding that the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) has doubled its revenues to become a world class operators, and that is working with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in developing a breakthrough innovation to extract valuable minerals from seawater.
The Forum is aimed at highlighting the role of mining in Saudi Vision 2030, after the government identified it as the third pillar of the Kingdom’s economy, it was reported.