Indian mining company Vedanta Ltd. plans to ramp up investments in Saudi Arabia and start mining copper and gold in the west of the country in six to eight months.
The company is banking on the kingdom’s ambitions to become a metals and mining centre as part of a major economic transformation, Bloomberg notes. Vedanta was officially awarded the licence along with other international companies including China’s Zijin Mining Group and Australian metals tycoon Gina Reingart’s Hancock Prospecting.
“Vedanta has shaped the value chain-from mining to processing-to metallurgy” in India, so we know what to do and how to do it,” said the company’s chief executive officer for copper and nickel in India and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Punit Khurana. “Now we are ready to do it for Saudi Arabia as well,” he added.
Vedanta plans to award a contract by mid-January for exploration and development of its first mine in the Jabal-Said belt, Khurana said.
The Indian company has already announced a $2bn investment to build copper processing plants in Saudi Arabia.
China’s Zijin also plans to step up exploration through partnerships with local companies and told Bloomberg it could start producing copper and gold in Saudi Arabia in five years.