Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Bandar bin Ibrahim Alkhorayef, hailed Morocco's distinguished experience in the mining industry as a promising sector at the heart of the Kingdom's socio-economic development.
Morocco has significant experience in developing mining industries, particularly phosphate, Alkhorayef told the press on the sidelines of talks with the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali.
He stressed his country's willingness to benefit from this experience by strengthening bilateral cooperation in drilling and mineralization, and exploring investment opportunities, noting that Morocco is an important partner of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in several fields.
Mining industries are one of the priorities for cooperation, said the Saudi minister, referring to the continued implementation of the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries last January in Riyadh, on the sidelines of the 3rd edition of the Minerals of the Future Forum, with the aim of enhancing cooperation in the field of mineral resources and promoting access to modern, pioneering technologies for processing minerals and raw materials.
The Saudi minister, who is making an official working visit to Morocco leading a high-level delegation from June 3 to 6, also highlighted “the boom in Morocco's mineral and renewable energy industries,” notably the manufacture of environmentally-friendly cars and the developed chemical industry, in which phosphate ores play a major role.
In this respect, he underlined Saudi Arabia's willingness to strengthen cooperation with Morocco in the fields of energy transition and strategic minerals, by supporting scientific potential in mining exploration and exploitation.
For her part, Benali called for closer cooperation in the minerals sector, developing expertise and skills and drawing on experience to keep pace with technological and scientific development in the mining industry.
This process ranges from mineral exploration and research to the extraction of marketable materials and the production of high value-added manufactured materials that enhance competitiveness on the global market, she said, adding that certain minerals have become of strategic importance due to their scarcity and increasing demand on the world market.
