JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s 114 million-tonne Jabal Sayid discovery could underpin a new strategic industry, but experts say the bigger test is turning geological potential into commercially competitive processing and manufacturing.
The resource, located in the Madinah Region, contains particularly high concentrations of heavy rare earth elements, alongside promising uranium concentrations, according to Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman.
A Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis, citing estimates from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources and Maaden, said Jabal Sayid could rank fourth globally, with an estimated 552,000 tonnes of heavy rare earths, including dysprosium and terbium, and 355,000 tonnes of light rare earths, including neodymium and praseodymium.
The discovery comes as Saudi Arabia seeks to capture more value from its mineral resources by developing processing and manufacturing capabilities domestically.
The opportunity extends beyond Jabal Sayid, with the Saudi Press Agency reporting in November that the value of the Kingdom’s rare-earth discoveries had reached $100 billion, up 90 percent from 2018, while Saudi Geological Survey studies identified two advanced-stage exploration areas with an estimated 644 million tonnes of resources.
Identifying a major resource is only the first step and the Kingdom is working to develop the specialist processing technology, infrastructure and industrial expertise required to turn rare earths into materials used in high-value products.
Maaden and MP Materials
One such move is a partnership between Maaden and American rare-earth materials company MP Materials. In November, the two companies signed a binding term sheet, backed by the US Department of War, to build and operate a rare-earth refining and separation facility in the Kingdom.
The agreement followed an MoU signed in May 2025 to explore an integrated, end-to-end rare-earth supply chain in Saudi Arabia spanning mining, separation, refining and magnet production.
The facility will be operated by Maaden with technical expertise from MP Materials and is being designed to process, refine, and separate rare earth elements using feedstock from Saudi Arabia and other global sources.
Under the agreement, Maaden will hold no less than 51 percent of the joint venture, while MP Materials and the US Department of War, through a joint venture, are targeting a combined 49 percent stake.
For Kurt Radtke, president of Appia Rare Earths and Uranium Corp. and founder and CEO of Vestigium Global Advisory Group, the partnership is important because “it can accelerate technology transfer while developing Saudi capability.”
From discovery to commercial production
The resource was initially reported at an estimated 110 million tonnes, a figure cited by the Energy Ministry when the discovery was announced in September. Subsequent official reporting revised the estimate to 114 million tonnes.
But experts caution against judging Jabal Sayid’s potential by tonnage alone.
Asked about the reported 110 million tonnes, Radtke — who spent nearly five years at Maaden, most recently as vice president of field operations and logistics — told Arab News: “The reported 110 million tonnes at Jabal Sayid certainly gets your attention but having spent several years running large scale exploration and drilling operations in Saudi Arabia, I would be careful about focusing too much on the headline number.”
Tonnage, he added, was only a starting point. Grade, mineralogy, continuity and, ultimately, the amount of rare-earth content that can be economically recovered are more important. Establishing that would require additional drilling, metallurgical testing, flowsheet development and pilot work.
Speaking to Arab News, Yaseen Ghulam, associate professor of economics and director of research at Riyadh-based Al-Yamamah University, said the economics of the entire production chain would ultimately determine whether the opportunity becomes commercially viable.
“Commercial success depends on more than just the amount of minerals available; it also depends on the cost and efficiency of the whole process from finding the minerals to selling them,” Ghulam said.
Key factors include how much valuable material is in the rock, extraction efficiency of valuable material, and project scale, as well as capital, energy and water costs, and logistics, in addition to financing, processing capacity and rare-earth price volatility.
The academic added that Saudi Arabia benefits from lower energy and transportation costs, but projects should be assessed against long-term prices rather than short-term market movements.
Before committing significant capital, he said, exploration, small-scale processing tests and detailed plans that show the project is realistic and can work.
The challenge of rare-earth processing
Asked about the biggest technical and operational obstacles to developing the industry, Radtke said that finding rare earths is one thing. Separating individual elements economically and consistently at commercial scale is another, particularly heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium.
“Saudi Arabia will need processing technology, laboratories, and experienced metallurgists as well as engineers, reliable reagent supply chains, and effective water and residue management,” the Appia president added.
Moving up the value chain
Asked how Saudi Arabia could move beyond mining and refining, Ghulam said the country should gradually build capabilities from mineral separation to oxides, metals, strong magnets, alloys, and components, while linking them to industries such as electric vehicles, wind energy, and electronics, as well as modern factories.
He emphasized that the bigger economic opportunity is to capture more value than simply extracting resources, adding that, from an economic perspective, local production makes sense only where Saudi Arabia has a strong competitive advantage, rather than simply because the government can provide financial support.
“Important things like working with tech companies, having skilled workers, doing research, having good factories, meeting quality standards, and having big investors will be key,” he said, adding that the goal should be to build strong, competitive supply chains, not just making things at home.
According to MP Materials, rare-earth magnets are essential components in critical technologies spanning transportation, energy, robotics, and aerospace.
Leveraging Saudi Arabia’s competitive energy base, world-class infrastructure, and strategic location, this collaboration will diversify and expand the global rare earth supply chain, supporting rising demand from fast-growing industries, the US firm said in May 2025.
Radtke said Saudi Arabia has a real opportunity to build a globally competitive rare-earth industry, pointing to the Kingdom’s ability to mobilize capital, infrastructure, and people when an industry becomes strategically important.
He added that this fits directly with Vision 2030, as the objective is not simply to discover and mine resources, but to diversify the economy, develop Saudi technical talent and capture more value inside the Kingdom through processing and advanced industry.
“Having worked inside Saudi Arabia’s mining transformation, I would not underestimate the Kingdom’s ability to achieve this. But success will ultimately depend on proving economic recoveries and executing consistently at commercial scale,” Radtke concluded.
