As part of its push to make mineral mining a pillar of its otherwise hydrocarbon-dominated economy, Saudi Arabia is investigating how to increase extraction by recycling mining waste.
This is providing a valuable opportunity for local startups and US technology companies.
Since the start of the year, several startups in the critical minerals and rare earth space have popped up in the kingdom, primarily through deals with Saudi mining conglomerate Ma’aden.
Ma’aden’s goal is to make mining “the third pillar” of the Saudi economy under the kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic and social strategic plan.
ReElement, an Indiana-based subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed American Resources Corporation, and Florida-based ElementUSA are among the US companies looking to tap the recycling opportunity.
“In many places around the world, you have to talk about why what we are doing is important in terms of creating a circular economy,” ElementUSA’s chief executive Ryan Boland told AGBI. He cited as an example the opportunity to reuse construction waste to extract minerals.
“There is no need to give that presentation in Saudi Arabia – that is very well understood from everyone we talked to,” Boland said.
Global demand for minerals such as copper, lithium and nickel, and rare earth metals such as scandium and gallium is expected to double or more by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency.
As China controls upwards of 90 percent of global refining capacity for some of these, Saudi Arabia is among many countries seeking to diversify its reliance.
ElementUSA signed an initial agreement with Ma’aden last month to adapt its technology to Saudi Arabia. Its know-how is capable of extracting critical minerals and rare earths from mining and industrial waste such as red mud.
ReElement, meanwhile, is working with the kingdom to commercialise a technology to recover and refine critical minerals and rare earths from coal sludge, wind turbine magnets and batteries. It set up a regional headquarters in Riyadh last month.
“For a long time from a supply standpoint, the Middle East has been caught between (the West and) Russia but especially China,” said Shane Tragethon, vice president of international strategy at ReElement. Now, “Saudi Arabia is looking to develop its own supply, develop its own manufacturing.”
The world’s largest Arab economy is also pushing development of its own start-ups in this area.
Lithium Infinity, or Lihtec, a project of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Riyadh, is leading a commercial pilot programme in partnership with Ma’aden and national oil company Aramco to extract lithium from brine in oil fields. Ma’aden is funding the project.
Saudi Arabia’s vice minister of industry and mineral resources Khalid Al-Mudaifer said in December he expects this relatively more expensive process to become cost-competitive as the price of lithium rises.
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