Vienna: Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced at the 70th IAEA General Conference that exploration and geological studies at the Jabal Sayid project in the Madinah region have identified a large resource of ore containing rare earth minerals and promising uranium concentrations.
The most widely reported figure is around 110 million tonnes, while the official Saudi statement indicates about 114 million tonnes of estimated ore resources. Importantly, this figure refers to ore / raw mineral material containing uranium, not 110 million tonnes of pure uranium. No official estimate of extractable pure uranium content was announced in the reviewed materials.
The announcement supports Saudi Arabia’s broader plan to expand uranium exploration and include nuclear energy in its long-term national energy mix. However, the find should still be understood as an exploration/resource discovery announcement, not confirmation of a completed uranium extraction project, full commercial production, or a finished nuclear-fuel operation.
