Saudi Arabia's state mining firm "Maaden" plans to double gold production to around 700,000 ounces a year in the next three or four years, the Maaden chief executive officer, Abdullah Dabbagh said.
"We expect gold production which now stands at over 350,000 ounces a year to continue growing and probably double output by 2008 or 2009," he was quoted as saying in a report published today by the Saudi Gazette.
"We now have four gold producing mines and one under development, which will start production next year. Another one will start being developed later this year," Dabbagh added.
Saudi Arabia plans to sell off 50 percent of Maaden in a public share offering at the end of next year. The privatization will include its gold unit, as well as mines producing bauxite and phosphate, which the company plans to process into aluminum and fertilizer for export.
Dabbagh was speaking at a signing ceremony for a SR513 million contract ($137 million) awarded to three firms to supervise construction of a railway linking the planned bauxite and phosphate mines with an industrial zone on the Gulf coast.
