Why, it's the Saudi Arabia of minerals!*
From Reuters, January 9:
Saudi Arabia has revised upwards estimates for its untapped mineral resources including phosphate, gold and rare earths to $2.5 trillion, from a 2016 forecast of $1.3 trillion, its mining minister said.
Mining is a key part of Riyadh's efforts to build an economy that does not largely rely on oil, involving a shift towards tapping vast reserves of phosphate, gold, copper and bauxite.
Its Saudi Arabian Mining Company (1211.SE), known as Ma'aden and established in 1997, already produces some of these minerals.
"We believe today that our reserves' potential have now grown by 90%," Mining Minister Bandar Al-Khorayef told Reuters in an interview.
"This increase of $1.2 trillion is a combination of more of what we have, like phosphate, and new, like rare earths, and revaluation of (commodities) pricing," he added. A formal announcement will made on Wednesday during the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) mining gathering....
....MUCH MORE
Saudi Arabia earmarks $182 mln for minerals exploration in mining push
*The introduction to March 2012's "Saudi Arabia to Become the Saudi Arabia of Oil Deliveries (A Whole Lot of Oil Cometh)":
If you do a search for "the Saudi Arabia of...". Google returns around one million hits, from "Maine to become the Saudi Arabia of wind" to "Mongolia: the Saudi Arabia of Coal" to "America, the Saudi Arabia of plastic packaging" to, well you get the idea. As far back as 2009 Kate Galbraith did a post at the NYT's Green blog that asked readers for suggestions on replacing the trope. Not gonna happen.
Oh 'effing 'eff. I just checked the link and the very first hit is The Economist, January 11, 2023:
Saudi Arabia wants to be the Saudi Arabia of minerals
economist.com
https://www.economist.com › business › 2024/01/111 day ago — Saudi Arabia wants to be the Saudi Arabia of minerals. The kingdom plans to be digging up plenty more than oil. Railroad tracks by a quarry ...
