Metal Bank Limited (ASX:MBK) has announced it’s setting up a JV entity in Saudi Arabia as part of the company’s overall Middle East & North Africa (MENA) expansion plans.
That entity will be 60% owned by MBK and 40% by another party called Central Mining Holding Company (CMHC) – the latter is a member of the Al Qahtani Group and helped develop the Jabal Sayid Project.
CMHC paid up around A$2M in costs for working capital for the JV. Metal Bank is hopeful this agreement can help it strike what it understands to be highly prospective acreage available in the Saudi Kingdom.
Metal Bank has also acquired three copper projects in Jordan in recent history as the company sets to establish itself in economies attempting to wean off of oil and move into minerals where exploitation has been historically limited, at least in relative comparison to other nations.
““We are excited to be working with our previous JV partners in Saudi. The Jabal Sayid project was a JV between CMC and Citadel and was an outstanding success mostly due to our robust relationship and commitment to working together,” MBK chair Ines Scotland said, speaking of her past role at Citadel.
“We have been working on executing our MENA strategy for three copper projects in Jordan combined with highly prospective exploration in KSA, where the Arabian Shield is the same size as the Yilgarn with only a fraction of the exploration spend.”
MBK last traded at 1.6cps.