Ma'aden has reported net additions of 7.8 million ounces to its Saudi gold mineral resources, with a maiden 3.08-million-ounce estimate at Wadi Al Jaww and a 3.0-million-ounce increase at Mansourah Massarah. Drilling defined more than nine million ounces before reporting adjustments.
Ma'aden has added 7.8 million ounces to its gold mineral resources in Saudi Arabia, the result of drilling across four areas spanning producing mines, early-stage prospects and new discoveries.
The company said the drilling itself defined more than nine million ounces of additions, and that the net figure of 7.8 million ounces reflects the annual adjustments made for resource reporting, including higher cost assumptions and revised commodity price inputs. The announcement was made as the Future Minerals Forum opened in Riyadh.
The single largest contribution was a maiden mineral resource of 3.08 million ounces at Wadi Al Jaww. Mansourah Massarah, Ma'aden's flagship gold operation, delivered a net increase of 3.0 million ounces year on year and is now estimated at 116 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams of gold per tonne, containing 10.4 million ounces. Uruq 20/21 and Umm As Salam together added 1.67 million ounces.
The distinction between a mineral resource and an ore reserve is worth holding onto here. A resource is a geological estimate of the metal believed to be present in a deposit at a confidence level supported by drilling, with reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. A reserve is the portion of that resource which a completed mining study has shown can actually be mined and processed at a profit under stated assumptions. Converting one into the other requires further drilling, metallurgical testwork, a mine design and a capital decision, and the conversion rate is never 100 percent.
The four areas are also at very different stages. Mansourah Massarah is an operating asset where the additions extend a system that is already being mined. Uruq 20/21 and Umm As Salam are earlier-stage ground. Wadi Al Jaww had no published resource at all until now, and a maiden estimate is the point at which a prospect becomes a project on paper — normally followed by infill drilling to raise confidence, metallurgical testwork to establish recovery, and only then a scoping study.
Resource statements are also recalculated each year against price and cost assumptions, which is why the drilled total and the reported total differ. In this case the adjustments removed roughly 1.2 million ounces from what the drill bit had defined. That is a normal outcome and a reminder that these numbers move with inputs as well as with geology.
Ma'aden said drilling will continue through 2026 and that it expects further resource growth as the geology at the newer targets is better understood — language that points at Wadi Al Jaww, where a maiden estimate of this size on ground that has not been drilled out usually indicates a system that is still open.
Because the company restates resources annually, the comparison that carries information is not this year's headline against nothing, but against last year's statement after a year of mining depletion.
The practical significance is optionality. A larger resource base gives the company grounds to extend the life of existing operations and a case for assessing Wadi Al Jaww as a standalone development. Neither follows automatically. Most maiden resources never reach a mining study, and a gold price that has been strong for an extended period is precisely the environment in which resource statements grow fastest across the industry.