Future Minerals Forum
Aramco delegation lends insight to global mining forum
The Future Mineral Forum brought together thousands of representatives from around the world to discuss key mineral resource strategies.
More than 3,000 delegates from nearly 100 countries around the globe recently gathered in Riyadh for the first Future Minerals Forum.
The government-led initiative helped connect global policy makers with investors and business leaders across the mining value chain and its supporting industries to advance mining goals through the Middle East, Central Asia, and North and East Africa.
The forum highlighted the unrivaled mining business in a dynamic, emerging part of the world where vast lands of untapped resource endowment comprise minerals vital to a growing and prosperous world economy. The conference and exhibition promoted strategic leadership and technical knowledge sharing, showcased advanced technologies and innovations, and facilitated new partnerships.
Nasir K. Al-Naimi, senior vice president of Upstream, said Aramco served as a strategic partner and participant in the forum as it had much to offer with its long history of operational excellence.
Our participation in the Future of Minerals Forum as a strategic partner is to showcase how success in the hydrocarbons industry in Saudi Arabia could be mimicked by the mining sector, using a combination of perseverance and hard work, and by emphasizing the value of human expertise along with the application of next generation, fit-for-purpose technologies.
— Nasir K. Al-Naimi
Al-Naimi was joined by Misfir A. AzZahrani, vice president of Exploration, and Khalid K. Al Mulhim, Corporate Affairs executive director, as well as other management and young professionals at the forum.
Aramco’s booth showcased the company’s role of digital and advanced technologies in discovering subsurface resources, and highlighted technology such as:
- Core Smart Table
- Geo Drone Virtual Reality Outcrop
- Dammam-7 (one of the top 10 supercomputers in the world)
- Geo automation
- Micro-computed tomography.
These innovative solutions were proudly made by Aramco scientists and engineers.
A roadmap in resilience and agility
Speaking at the plenary session “Setting Foundation — Establishing a Mining Ecosystem,” AzZahrani discussed the major enablers for Aramco’s success and explaining how other companies could benefit from Aramco’s journey.
“Our resilience and agility have built one of the world’s largest integrated energy and chemicals companies,” he said. “This could not have been done without our people, operational excellence, and investment in technology.”
Emphasizing the importance of a resilient mindset to take calculated risks and to invest in unlocking the Kingdom’s subsurface potential, he reminded those attending that exploration for resources in the Kingdom did not have an easy start.
“It took the drilling campaign led by Max Steineke in 1938 five years before finally striking oil in the prosperity well, Dammam Well No. 7,” AzZahrani said. “It was through lessons learned, and continuous adaptation and evolution that we were able to survive and thrive in an ever-demanding energy landscape. A great part of Steineke’s success is attributed to the local knowledge of a certain skilled Saudi tracker.
“This, in a nutshell, is why Aramco has invested in training, attracting, and retaining world-class talent,” he noted.