Saudi Arabia is moving to accelerate the search for critical minerals, with energy giant Aramco and mining heavyweight Maaden signing a deal to establish a joint venture focused on mineral exploration and hard-rock mining.

 

The proposed venture, which was first announced in January 2025, will target copper and other minerals considered critical to the global energy transition.

 

Maaden is expected to hold a 51% stake in the joint venture, with Aramco owning the remaining 49%.

 

The venture will focus its exploration efforts on Zone-4, also known as the Transition Zone, within the Arabian Platform. The area covers roughly 182,000 square kilometers—nearly 10% of Saudi Arabia’s total landmass—and stretches along a 100-kilometer-wide corridor parallel to the Arabian Shield.

 

The partnership brings together Aramco’s vast geological data and technological capabilities with Maaden’s mining and exploration expertise.

 

Saleh M. Al Saleh, Aramco Vice President of Transition Minerals, said: “Over 90 years, Aramco has accumulated and analyzed the largest amount of geological and geophysical data ever acquired in a single basin for the Kingdom. 

 

"This partnership intends to leverage this legacy information to find minerals in the JV area within the basin. Maaden’s expertise, our people, high-performance computing, and AI are expected to play a pivotal role in accelerating the discovery of key transition minerals at low cost.”

 

Darryl Clark, Maaden Executive Vice President for Exploration, said: “Maaden has been advancing one of the world’s largest single jurisdiction exploration programs across the Arabian Shield to help unlock the Kingdom’s mineral potential. This joint venture would take that ambition into a new area. 

 

"By combining Maaden’s exploration and development expertise with Aramco’s extraordinary knowledge of the Arabian Platform, we would have an opportunity to move faster, explore smarter, and create new opportunities to discover the minerals that will power the energy transition.”

 

Copper will be a primary target for the venture, reflecting its growing importance to electric vehicles, power grids, energy storage and renewable energy infrastructure.

 

The metal accounts for more than 20% of the global $1.2 trillion mined-metals market. The copper market, currently valued at about $250 billion, is projected to exceed $400 billion by 2035.

 

The JV will also search for zinc, lead and rare earth elements—minerals expected to play an increasingly important role in future industries.

 

Aramco and Maaden plan to deploy artificial intelligence, advanced computational algorithms and high-performance computing to identify areas with the greatest mineral potential. The technology-driven approach is intended to speed up the process from regional geological screening to target identification and eventual discovery.

 

The companies said the venture could help accelerate the development of Saudi Arabia’s mining sector, strengthen the Kingdom’s position in the global minerals value chain and support growing demand for energy-transition minerals.