Kharabsheh, Saudi industry minister talk mining cooperation

Amman: Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Dr. Saleh Kharabsheh, on Thursday discussed with Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Bandar Alkhorayef, ways to enhance Jordanian-Saudi cooperation in the mining field. During the meeting, Kharabsheh stressed the "deep-rooted" brotherly relations, noting importance of opening "new" horizons for cooperation with Saudi Arabia, focusing on sustainability, environment, infrastructure, and other areas. Kharabsheh pointed out the importance of the mining sector now and its connection to energy and the growing consumption of basic metals that are used in future clean energy industries, artificial intelligence, and accelerated technological development. Stressing importance of pan-Arab action to create joint Arab investments, he said this effort aims to exploit the available opportunities and capabilities in the Arab world, indicating necessity of coordinating pan-Arab action to make decisions that contribute to draw the global map for managing their m ineral resources. Kharabsheh pointed to the multiple investment opportunities in Jordan's mining sector, referring to Ministry of Energy's efforts to exploit ores, starting with the signing of 13 memorandums of understanding for mineral exploration in all the Kingdom's regions. For his part, Alkhorayef stressed importance of strengthening joint cooperation in the field of exchanging expertise and information, organizing mutual events, encouraging the two countries' private sector to establish investment partnerships, and agreeing to form teams to activate related issues discussed bilaterally. The two sides agreed to activate the joint technical memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the geology and mining fields, by naming contact points to develop an action plan that aims to focus on mineral wealth areas, including mutual geochemical studies, according to a Ministry of Energy statement. The visit of the official Saudi delegation, headed by Alkhorayef, comes as part of its meetings in Jordan, aimed to discu ss means to strengthen cooperation in economic sectors, which Jordan has "remarkable" expertise, primarily the mining sector, as the Kingdom has "longstanding" record in this field, while it is "emerging" in Saudi Arabia, the statement said. Source: Jordan News Agency