Saudi Arabia cuts mining allow timeline to as little as 30 days, minister says

DAVOS — Saudi Arabia has streamlined its mining licensing course of, lowering the time required to acquire a allow to between 30 and 90 days, Minister of Business and Mineral Assets Bandar Al-Khorayef mentioned on the World Financial Discussion board Annual Assembly 2026. Talking throughout a panel dialogue on Wednesday, Al-Khorayef highlighted the distinction between the Kingdom’s strategy and that of extra established mining jurisdictions. He recalled his shock at studying that securing a mining allow in Canada can take as much as 10 years. “The reason being that we realized very early on that allowing is a serious bottleneck within the system,” Al-Khorayef mentioned. “That is very true in nations that started mining a lot earlier.” The minister mentioned Saudi Arabia’s accelerated licensing framework is a part of broader efforts to modernize the sector and entice funding whereas sustaining regulatory oversight. Al-Khorayef additionally addressed the worldwide notion of the mining business, acknowledging longstanding environmental, social, and financial considerations related to the sector. “We additionally should be very frank: mining doesn’t have a very good world status — for legitimate causes,” he mentioned. “And that’s precisely why we try to vary this. However dashing up licensing alone will not be sufficient. You additionally want to indicate communities and folks the actual influence of mining on their lives.” His remarks underscored the Kingdom’s technique of pairing environment friendly regulatory processes with stronger neighborhood engagement, aiming to display the social and financial worth of mining alongside efforts to construct a aggressive and accountable funding setting. The feedback have been made on the sidelines of the World Financial Discussion board, which brings collectively world political and enterprise leaders to debate key financial and coverage challenges.

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