UK-Saudi consortium wins Khnaiguiyah exploration licence
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources has announced that the UK-Saudi consortium of Moxico Resources and Ajlan & Bros Mining Company has emerged as the winners of the electronic multi-round auction for the Khnaiguiyah exploration licence.
Mining and mineral resources
The four-day auction comprised of 44 rounds, a statement said. It added that the project had attracted the interest of more than 30 national and international companies, with 24 prospective bidders making it to the prequalification stage.
Six bidders made detailed submissions, which culminated with the Ministry inviting the top three bidders to only bid for the licence in a multi-round auction to maintain transparency and ensure a completely unbiased process, the statement explained.
The other two consortiums participating in the multi-round auction round were:
- Alara Saudi Ventures and Al Tasnim Enterprises
- Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) and Ivanhoe Electric
Mining potential for mineral resources, zinc and copper
The Ministry added that the winning consortium bid up the signing bonus by US$68m to clinch the auction.
The Khnaiguiyah exploration licence is the largest in the Kingdom. It is located west of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, within the Al Quwaiiyah governorate. The site’s mining potential is estimated at approximately 25m tonnes of Zinc and Copper ores at 4.11% zinc and 0.56% copper.
The statement added that the winning bidder has committed to drilling more than 90,000 metre, with an expedited programme and commercial production start date. In addition, the consortium will dedicate 0.6% of the annual turnover towards a variety of social initiatives. These include the building of schools, healthcare and transportation facilities, while also hiring up to 83% of employees from the local area.
Moxico Resources is a private operating, development and exploration mining company incorporated in the UK. It has a prospective portfolio of scalable copper, cobalt and zinc projects located in Zambia, in South-Central Africa.
