Saudi Arabia Expands Mining Strategy as Aramco and Maaden Target Copper
Saudi Arabia is broadening its push into critical minerals as Saudi Aramco and Saudi Arabian Mining Company, Maaden, move toward establishing a large scale mineral exploration joint venture focused primarily on copper.
Under a shareholders’ agreement announced on 18 August 2026, Maaden is expected to hold a 51% stake in the proposed venture, with Aramco owning the remaining 49%. The partnership will explore approximately 182,000 square kilometres within Zone 4 of the Arabian Platform, also known as the Transition Zone.
The area represents nearly 10% of Saudi Arabia’s total land mass and extends along a corridor running parallel to the mineral rich Arabian Shield.
The agreement marks an important expansion of cooperation between Saudi Arabia’s largest energy company and its national mining champion, while reinforcing the Kingdom’s strategy to develop mining as a major non oil pillar of the economy.
The transaction remains subject to customary corporate and regulatory approvals, including competition clearance. No exploration budget, resource estimate, capital expenditure programme or commercial production timetable has yet been announced.
Key figures
| Indicator | Announced or latest figure |
|---|---|
| Maaden ownership | 51% |
| Aramco ownership | 49% |
| Exploration area | Approximately 182,000 sq km |
| Share of Saudi land area | Nearly 10% |
| Primary exploration target | Copper |
| Additional target minerals | Zinc, lead and rare earth elements |
| Estimated global mined metals market | Approximately $1.2 trillion |
| Copper share of mined metals market | More than 20% |
| Current copper market value | Approximately $250 billion |
| Projected copper market value by 2035 | More than $400 billion |
| Saudi mineral endowment | More than $2.5 trillion |
| IEA projected copper supply gap in 2035 | Approximately 25% |
From lithium ambitions to a broader mineral platform
The agreement represents a notable evolution from the initial cooperation outlined by Aramco and Maaden in January 2025.
At that stage, the companies highlighted opportunities across energy transition minerals, with particular emphasis on lithium extraction. Aramco had identified lithium concentrations in some of its operating areas and was exploring the potential use of direct lithium extraction technologies.
The latest agreement substantially broadens that proposition.
The new venture is centred on hard rock mineral exploration, with copper identified as the principal target and zinc, lead and rare earth elements also included within the exploration mandate.
Lithium is not listed among the priority commodities in the latest announcement.
This suggests that the partnership has evolved from a relatively focused lithium initiative into a much broader mineral exploration platform designed to test the geological potential of a vast and comparatively underexplored section of the Arabian Platform.
Copper strengthens the strategic case
The emphasis on copper gives the venture greater strategic relevance to global electrification, infrastructure investment and energy transition supply chains.
Copper is indispensable across electricity transmission networks, renewable energy projects, electric vehicles, battery infrastructure, industrial machinery and data centres.
Aramco estimates that copper represents more than 20% of the approximately $1.2 trillion global mined metals market.
The company values the copper market at around $250 billion currently and expects it to exceed $400 billion by 2035.
Based on those figures, the market would expand by at least 60% over the period. This implies compound annual growth of approximately 5.4% from 2026 to 2035.
The demand outlook is reinforced by tightening global supply fundamentals.
The International Energy Agency projects that copper demand will increase by around 7 million tonnes through 2040, representing the largest absolute demand increase among the major critical minerals covered by its latest outlook.
More significantly, based on existing and announced mining projects, the IEA estimates that global copper mine supply could remain approximately 25% below primary supply requirements in 2035 under its Stated Policies Scenario.
This prospective imbalance strengthens the economic rationale for accelerating exploration in jurisdictions capable of supporting large scale mining investment.
For Saudi Arabia, successful copper discoveries could therefore provide exposure not only to the energy transition, but also to the broader expansion of electricity grids, artificial intelligence infrastructure, industrial capacity and advanced manufacturing.
Aramco’s geological data could provide a competitive advantage
The partnership is particularly significant because Aramco is contributing capabilities that extend well beyond capital.
After more than 90 years of hydrocarbon exploration and development, Aramco has accumulated an extensive geological and geophysical database covering large areas of the Arabian Platform.
The company intends to combine that information with advanced computational algorithms, artificial intelligence and high performance computing to identify locations with higher probabilities of mineralisation.
Maaden will contribute its mineral exploration, geological interpretation, mine development and operating expertise.
The combination could potentially reduce one of the largest risks associated with mineral exploration: the time and capital required to move from broad regional screening to viable drilling targets and ultimately commercially recoverable resources.
If successful, the venture could demonstrate how geological information originally accumulated for oil and gas exploration can be repurposed to accelerate the discovery of strategic minerals.
This is particularly relevant as the global mining industry increasingly adopts artificial intelligence, advanced geophysics and data analytics to improve exploration efficiency and reduce discovery costs.
Mining moves deeper into Saudi Arabia’s diversification strategy
The joint venture fits within a much wider expansion of Saudi Arabia’s mining sector.
The Kingdom now estimates the value of its mineral endowment at more than $2.5 trillion, covering a wide range of metallic and industrial minerals.
Saudi Arabia has positioned mining as a third pillar of national industrial development alongside oil and petrochemicals under Vision 2030.
The Kingdom’s comprehensive mining and mineral industries strategy targets a contribution of approximately SR240 billion to gross domestic product, reflecting the increasing role policymakers expect the sector to play in economic diversification.
Exploration activity has already expanded significantly.
Official Saudi data show exploration expenditure increasing from less than $28 per square kilometre in 2020 to around $144 per square kilometre in 2024.
That represents an increase of more than 400% within four years.
Saudi authorities have also expanded competitive licensing programmes for domestic and international mining companies, opening additional areas targeting copper, gold, silver, zinc, nickel and other strategic commodities.
Against that background, the proposed 182,000 square kilometre Aramco and Maaden exploration zone stands out because of both its scale and its integration of petroleum sector geological information with dedicated mining expertise.
Economic implications
The venture carries several potentially important implications for the Saudi economy.
First, it expands Aramco’s strategic exposure beyond hydrocarbons and into commodities expected to play an increasingly important role in global infrastructure and electrification.
Second, it strengthens Maaden’s position as the principal domestic platform through which Saudi Arabia is developing mining capabilities across exploration, extraction, processing and international investment.
Third, significant domestic discoveries could support the development of downstream mineral processing and manufacturing industries.
Copper in particular has potential linkages with electrical equipment, power infrastructure, renewable energy systems, construction, electric vehicles and advanced industrial manufacturing.
Developing those value chains domestically would allow Saudi Arabia to capture a larger proportion of the economic value generated by mineral resources rather than relying primarily on raw material exports.
Fourth, stronger domestic mineral production could enhance Saudi Arabia’s position within global critical mineral supply chains at a time when governments and manufacturers are increasingly focused on geographic concentration, supply security and geopolitical risk.
Why it matters for MENA
The implications extend beyond Saudi Arabia.
MENA has historically been one of the world’s most important suppliers of hydrocarbons. The increasing strategic importance of metals creates an opportunity for the region to develop an additional role within global energy and industrial supply chains.
Saudi Arabia’s approach demonstrates how existing energy sector capabilities can potentially be transferred into mining.
Geological databases, drilling expertise, infrastructure, competitively priced energy, industrial zones, logistics networks and substantial domestic capital could all support the development of regional mineral supply chains.
If commercially viable copper, rare earth or other strategic mineral deposits emerge from the new exploration area, Saudi Arabia could eventually support a wider ecosystem spanning mining, mineral processing, manufacturing and exports.
This would broaden the region’s role in the global energy system from predominantly supplying hydrocarbons toward also supplying materials required for electrification and advanced technologies.
Execution remains the key risk
Despite the strategic significance of the announcement, the venture remains fundamentally an exploration proposition.
The size of an exploration licence does not determine the commercial value of the minerals beneath it.
The critical stages will be geological surveying, geophysical interpretation, drilling, resource definition, metallurgical testing and ultimately the determination of whether identified deposits can be developed economically.
Large copper projects typically require substantial capital investment, long development periods and extensive supporting infrastructure.
Ore grades, depth, metallurgy, water requirements, energy costs, logistics and processing economics will ultimately determine whether any discoveries become commercially viable mines.
The absence of a disclosed investment budget or development timetable means it remains too early to estimate the potential financial contribution of the venture.
Outlook
The next milestones will be the completion of regulatory approvals, formal incorporation of the joint venture and disclosure of its initial exploration programme.
Subsequent drilling results will be critical in determining whether Aramco’s extensive subsurface database and computational capabilities can materially improve mineral discovery rates.
Investors should also watch whether lithium returns as a defined workstream within the partnership or is developed separately following the broader shift toward hard rock copper exploration.
The longer term significance of the initiative will therefore depend less on the sheer size of the exploration territory and more on whether the partnership can convert geological information into economically recoverable mineral resources.
If that model proves successful, the Aramco and Maaden venture could become more than a single exploration project.
It could establish a scalable technology enabled model for converting decades of Saudi subsurface knowledge into a new generation of mineral assets, supporting the Kingdom’s ambition to build mining into a major pillar of economic diversification while strengthening its position within increasingly strategic global critical mineral supply chains.
Sources: Saudi Aramco, Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, Saudi Vision 2030, International Energy Agency, Bloomberg and Reuters. Data verified as of 18 August 2026.
