Aramco, Maaden Form Copper Mining Joint Venture

Aramco and Maaden have signed a shareholders' agreement to establish a joint venture focused on mineral exploration and hard-rock mining across Saudi Arabia, with copper set as the primary target alongside other energy-transition minerals including zinc, lead, and rare earth elements.

Under the agreement, Maaden will hold a 51% stake and Aramco 49%. The venture will explore an area of roughly 182,000 square kilometres known as Zone-4, or the Transition Zone, within the Arabian Platform. That area represents close to 10% of Saudi Arabia's land, running along a corridor about 100 kilometres wide that parallels the Arabian Shield.

Copper has been designated the main commodity because of its central role in electric vehicles, electricity networks, energy storage, and renewable energy systems. Zinc, lead, rare earth elements, and other hard-rock minerals are also part of the exploration scope.

Combining data and mining expertise

The joint venture will bring together Aramco's subsurface data, geospatial information, advanced artificial intelligence tools, and computational capabilities with Maaden's mining and mineral-exploration experience. Together, these will support both exploration and any future development activities.

The venture and its shareholders' agreement remain subject to corporate, regulatory, and antitrust approvals within Saudi Arabia before full implementation.

This copper-focused initiative is separate from an earlier non-binding 2025 framework between the two companies that targeted lithium extraction and direct lithium-extraction technology, with potential commercial lithium production by 2027. Both efforts sit within a broader push to build a domestic minerals supply chain — a step that aligns with national goals to diversify the economy and support growing demand for materials essential to clean energy and modern infrastructure.

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