Saudi announces qualified bidders for Khnaiguiyah site
Saudi Arabia on Monday announced qualified bidders for the Khnaiguiyah project, the kingdom’s largest mining exploration site.
The Khnaiguiyah site, which covers more than 350 square kilometres, is located in Al Rayn terrane. It forms part of the Arabian Shield, which has a potential value of $1.3 trillion across 48 commodities, according to official data.
Qualified bidders have been given two months to complete and submit their proposals, and will be invited to learn more about the next stages of the licensing round process. The ministry may select a single successful bidder who will enter the final negotiation stage on the terms of the exploration licence, it added. Meanwhile, if two or more proposals fall within a comparative range, the ministry will designate these bidders as “competitive” and invite them to participate in a final licensing round in the form of a multi-round auction.
The estimated size of investment at the Khnaiguiyah project is 2bn riyals, the ministry said. It could potentially generate up to 3,000 direct and indirect jobs and would contribute substantially to developing the country’s zinc and copper downstream industries.
