AMAK Company announced the launch of its strategic growth plan until the end of 2025, which aims to consolidate its position in the mining industry in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 for economic diversification and sustainable development.

"AMAK" said in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange today, Monday, that the approved strategic growth plan until 2025 is based on a number of qualitative initiatives that aim to activate the currently available growth opportunities by expanding development operations for a number of existing sites and mines in a way that enhances their productivity and raises their operational efficiency, and expanding exploration operations in all new sites.

The new initiatives are based on two main axes, the first of which is to activate existing growth opportunities, and includes the development of gold deposits at the Katina site: The gold deposits of this site extend over a distance of 1.5 kilometers, which provides a great opportunity to enhance the company’s gold production. Production from the gold deposits is expected to begin within a period not exceeding 6 months from obtaining the mining license, which is in its final stages and we expect it to be issued during 2024.

This axis also includes expanding and developing sub-sites: developing and starting production from excavation sites such as the Sukari site, to supply the gold processing plant at the Qian site, as the exploration and mining licenses in Qian, including the Aqeeq site, contain several shallow deposits that can enhance the operational life of the Qian gold factory.

AMAK intends to conduct assessments to determine the level of gold deposits at the new migration site as an additional source of raw metal.

The current growth opportunities include underground mining at Qian mines. Underground mining operations at Qian mine are scheduled to commence by Q2 2025 to supply the Qian gold plant, which is expected to reduce the cost of gold production by US$400 per ounce, as underground mining reserves have higher purity grades and mining costs are significantly lower than deep surface mining operations.

The company is also working on developing the Naham iron oxide project, and starting the production of iron oxide ore from the Naham mine within 3 months of the issuance of the mining license. It is in its final stages and is expected to be issued by the end of this year.

This mine contains more than 7 million tons of resources to meet the local demand for this raw material used in the cement industry, as the local consumption of cement factories exceeds one million tons annually.

The company is working to expand the dry waste storage capacity by the end of 2025 to accommodate all future mineable reserve waste in a number of sites including: Factories, Qian, Katina, and other sub-sites.

The second axis of new initiatives focuses on creating new opportunities for growth. The strategic growth plan focused on a set of initiatives that aim to create a set of new projects in order to expand the scope of companies’ operations in new markets and sectors, in addition to raising levels of sustainability and achieving higher levels of operational efficiency.

AMAK has decided to establish a wholly owned limited liability drilling company dedicated to accelerating the exploration program for AMAK’s existing 21 licenses, including 17 base metal licenses covering an area of ​​1,296.4 square kilometers - two licenses for industrial minerals quartz, manganese and silica covering an area of ​​110.91 square kilometers - two licenses for gold, copper, zinc and silver mining covering an area of ​​52.48 square kilometers. This company will also provide drilling and related services to other customers in the Kingdom.

The company will work to obtain additional promising exploration licenses through bidding, which will be offered by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources in the future, and begin exploration in the new industrial mineral concessions that have been obtained, which are silica, manganese and quartz, and connect the “AMAK” facilities to the public electricity grid, which will lead to reducing diesel consumption and improving the company’s carbon footprint.