Global mining stars due at third annual Saudi green metals conference

Saudi Arabia seeks to funnel more petro-dollars to battery metal projects with an all-star lineup at its third annual Future Minerals Forum in January.  

Leaders of the world’s largest mining companies are due to attend the Jan. 9-11 conference in Riyadh, the capital: Dominic Barton of Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO), Mark Bristow of Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD), Robert Friedland of Ivanhoe Electric (TSX: IE; NYSE-AM: IE) Eduardo Bartolomeo of Vale (NYSE: VALE) and Stuart Chambers of Anglo American (LSE: AAL).

They’re just a few of the 250 speakers and panelists scheduled to attend among 75 sessions, organizers said at a press conference on Monday in Riyadh. Some 95 countries were invited to attend ministerial discussions on the opening day. New this year in a component on geological surveys. Khalid Al-Mudaifer, vice-minister for Mining Affairs, outlined some of the conference’s goals.

“One is to build cooperation with the various international companies in the world to enhance the methods of discovery and production of new minerals and manufacturing,” Al-Mudaifer said. “Another is the ministerial meetings to enhance collaboration between ministers of the world.”

At the 2023 event, Barrick and Ivanhoe were among companies that signed agreements with Saudi state mining operation Ma’aden to explore in the kingdom. They’re helping the oil giant pivot to green energy as the globe transitions away from fossil fuels.

Battery plant

Saudi Arabia is already making its own electric cars and plans to produce about 58 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity. It emerged as a regional leader of the transition in 2016 with its Saudi Vision 2030. The kingdom wants to build what would be the world’s largest battery chemical processing plant, in Yanbu on the Red Sea in the kingdom’s far west.

It would be the first integrated battery metals complex where the same company would mine materials, then make batteries from them. Perth, Australia-based EV Metals Group, which is controlled by Saudi Arabia, wants to construct the plant.

EVM would supply material from its own projects in Western Australia while it explores for local minerals in the kingdom.

The project aims to produce 50,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate in 2026 before ramping up to 150,000 tonnes a year. A second plant would produce 450,000 tonnes of nickel, manganese and cobalt sulphates annually. Another factory at the site would make cathodes for batteries.