Saudi’s mining sector bags $3bn worth funding from Australia’s EV Metals

Saudi’s mining sector bags $3bn worth funding from Australia’s EV Metals

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EV Metals Group, Australia-based clean energy metals company, has revealed its plans to invest $3 billion in Saudi Arabia in a bet on the metals used in batteries for electric vehicles.

The Australian company’s investment will be utilized for building plants to process minerals such as lithium and nickel, later expand into exploring for the battery metals, managing director and chief executive officer Mr. Michael Naylor said. It would be one of the first major deals since Saudi Arabia passed a law to attract investments in mining as it looks to diversify its economy.

“We’re the first mover and we’ve got the know-how, the technology and the technical capabilities to bring to the kingdom to explore for these metals,” Mr. Naylor said. Based on its studies, EV Metals is “optimistic” it will find significant deposits of the materials used for electric car batteries in Saudi Arabia.

Within the next years, the processing facilities will be developed. Further, the company has more than 15 applications for exploration licenses in Saudi Arabia and is looking for deposits of lithium, nickel and cobalt.

EV Metals is building the battery chemicals processing facility to supply a potential automotive manufacturing cluster in the kingdom. The first stage of