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1) Ivanhoe Electric and the Saudi Arabian state owned mining company, Ma'aden, is joining to explore for critical minerals used in the green transition for an initial term of 5 years and may extend up to 10 years. It is a 50/50 joint venture that will "...explore for copper, gold, silver and electric metals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." The "Saudi Exploration Joint Venture" will also use Ivanhoe Electric's Typhoon™ on a wide scale to explore just under 19,000 sq mi. of the Arabian Shield. As part of this joint venture, Ma'aden will also invest $126.4 million in Ivanhoe Electric which is headquartered in Arizona, with flagship holdings in Arizona and Utah. With this investment, Ivanhoe Electric will issue approximately 10.2 million new common shares and Ma'aden will become a 9.9% shareholder in the company. Ivanhoe Electric will use about $60 million of gross proceeds in advancing its US mineral projects and for working capital and general corporate purposes. The company's Typhoon technology uses electrical pulses to geospatially detect metals that are buried 1 mile underground. Using this technology is beneficial to areas such as the Arabian Shield as it is buried with sand and gravel.
2) The British government is yet another partner that has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to diversify its sources of critical minerals. The government said that it is important to "ensuring the UK's critical mineral supply chains are not overly reliant on any one country, with supplies currently dominated by China." The Saudi Arabian investment will be focused on the UK's manufacturing and mining finance sectors and opportunities for UK mining firms to do business in Saudi Arabia.
3) Two former BHP executives have developed Torqn, an app that allows workers to share information across the mining industry based on the equipment and commodity that they mine. BHP, Rio Tinto, South32 and Komatsu are backing the app with investments including BHP, Komatsu, and OZ Minerals as early users. Manufacturors, engineers, operators, managers and suppliers can join the social network to give advice, help troubleshoot problems and give insight on new equipment.