Minerals indispensable for transition to renewable energy: Al-Mudaifer – Saudi Gazette

Minerals indispensable for transition to renewable energy: Al-Mudaifer – Saudi Gazette

LONDON — Saudi Arabia's Vice Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Mining Affairs Eng. Khalid Saleh Al-Mudaifer stressed that minerals are indispensable to the energy change to renewables. Decarbonization – the net-zero transition – cannot happen without minerals and metals, he pointed out.

He noted that this requires us to scale up discoveries and we need to scale up production. Noting that the World Bank says that by 2050 the production of minerals such as graphite, lithium, cobalt and copper needs to increase by nearly 500% to meet the future demand for clean energy technologies.

Al-Mudaifer made the remarks during the Mines and Money conference in London. International delegates and global mining investors who attended the conference heard Saudi Arabia's argument that the energy transition from hydrocarbons to renewables is opening the path for it to become a global leader in sustainable and innovative production of minerals and metals, especially since a vast, new and largely untapped minerals super-region is emerging, stretching from Africa to central Asia.

He stressed that as the transition accelerates, mineral and metal supply chains need to become more resilient. "The pandemic and geopolitical tensions have shown their weaknesses. And we have seen a rise in ‘resource nationalism.’