Letter from Saudi Arabia: Big oil meets big shovel

As Saudi Arabia pushes mining as a new pillar of its economy, Saudi Aramco is positioning itself at the intersection of hydrocarbons, minerals and industrial policy

Commodities analysts have talked for some time about the convergence between ‘big oil’ and ‘big shovel’—how mining and minerals will rival hydrocarbons as the driver of the world economy, especially in the age of ‘energy transition’. Nobody seriously expects oil and gas to disappear from the global energy mix for many decades to come, but the increasing importance of ‘big shovel’ was on full display at the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) in Riyadh in January. There, in the middle of the main hall at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Centre, among the names of the world’s biggest mining companies, was an imposing pavilion bearing the logo of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company