March 27, 2025 - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Dr. Saleh Kharabsheh, conducted an inspection visit to the silica sand upgrading project in the Dabat Hanout area in the southern part of the Kingdom on Thursday.
During the visit, Kharabsheh emphasized the importance of the project in re-evaluating silica ore in line with global market demands and their need for silica ore with a purity exceeding 99.9%. This is part of the Ministry's efforts to restore momentum to the mining sector, increase its contribution to the gross domestic product, expand job opportunities, and improve the standard of living for local communities.
The first phase of the project included preparing mineralogical studies and microscopic imaging of the quality and formation of mineral and clay impurities in silica grains, as well as the grain size distribution. The findings concluded that it was necessary to proceed to the second phase to determine purity parameters.
The second phase of the silica sand upgrading project in the Dabat Hanout area in the south of the Kingdom was launched at the beginning of last January. The project targets an area of approximately 25 km2 to determine the purest levels of silica sand by drilling prospecting boreholes covering the entire area. Twelve boreholes have been drilled, and more than 400 samples have been analyzed.
For his part, Hisham Al-Zyood, Director of Geology and Mining at the Ministry, explained that the Ministry is currently studying several offers to complete the upgrading of silica sand at international laboratories, such as the German Anzaplan Laboratories, North Carolina Laboratories, and the Chinese Sinonine Laboratories.
Al-Zyood explained that based on the preliminary analysis of subsurface silica samples conducted by North Carolina Laboratories, the results were positive, with the silica purity reaching 99.97%. Accordingly, these laboratories will submit a financial and technical proposal to complete the study of these samples to reach desired levels suitable for industrial exploitation.