Royal Road Minerals Ltd (TSX-V:RYR, OTC:RRDMF) announced that its 50%-owned joint venture, Royal Road Arabia (RRA), has qualified for Saudi Arabia’s Exploration Enablement Program (EEP), securing up to US$2 million in exploration cost reimbursements per exploration license.
The qualification applies to RRA’s Jabal Sahabiyah project, which spans three contiguous exploration licenses. The project is part of a joint venture between Royal Road and MIDU Company Limited, a Saudi investment holding firm.
The EEP, launched by the Saudi government, supports exploration within the first five years of tenure for Greenfields sites, with reimbursements covering drilling, labor, geochemical analysis, and other exploration-related costs, subject to certain caps.
The program aims to boost exploration in the Arabian Shield region, recognized for its untapped mineralization potential.
Tim Coughlin, CEO of Royal Road, told investors that the company are “grateful recipients” of the initiative.
“The Exploration Enablement Program is an appreciable measure of Saudi Arabia's unrivalled approach to encouraging exploration investment. In our view, the Arabian Shield is one of the few pure grassroots environments which remains entirely open to the discovery of new and previously unconsidered styles of base and precious metals mineralization,” Coughlin said.
“The EEP comes at an opportune time as the global impact of resource depletion sets in and interest in mineral exploration recovers."