Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, and Maaden, one of the world’s fastest‑growing mining companies, on Tuesday announced the signing of a shareholders’ agreement to form a joint venture (JV) to unlock new opportunities in mineral exploration and hard-rock mining in Saudi Arabia. 

Combining the strengths of two leaders in their respective fields, the JV would focus on copper and other minerals critical to the energy transition. Plans for the JV were first disclosed in January 2025.

The JV is expected to be owned 51% by Maaden and 49% by Aramco and would focus on exploration across Zone-4, also known as the Transition Zone, within the Arabian Platform. 

It represents a major new opportunity for mineral discovery in the Kingdom. Spanning approximately 182,000 sq km, nearly 10% of Saudi Arabia’s total land area, the expected exploration area stretches along a 100-kilometer-wide zone running parallel to the Arabian Shield.

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, which is increasingly significant for electric vehicles, power networks, energy storage, and renewable energy systems, would be a main focus of the JV. 

Copper is a major metal making up over 20% of the $1.2 trillion mined metals market. The copper market is currently valued at approximately $250 billion and is projected to grow to over $400 billion by 2035. The JV would also explore for other energy transition minerals including zinc, lead, and rare earth elements that are expected to be crucial to industries of the future.

Leveraging advanced computational algorithms, AI, and high-performance computing, the JV intends to target areas most likely to contain copper and valuable minerals, accelerating the path from regional screening to target definition and discovery. This is expected to support long-term sector development, reinforce the Kingdom’s role in the global minerals value chain, and help meet rising demand for transition minerals.

The effectiveness of the shareholders’ agreement and the incorporation of the JV is conditional upon the fulfillment of certain condition precedents, including, but not limited to, obtaining all the required corporate and regulatory approvals and antitrust clearance. -TradeArabia News Service