SWEDEN'S BOLIDEN TO OPEN SAUDI ARABIAN GOLD MINE
  Mining group Boliden AB said it had
  agreed with Saudi state agency General Petroleum and Mineral
  Organisation (Petromin) to open a gold mine in Saudi Arabia to
  exploit one of the world's richest deposits of the metal.
      Boliden spokesman Goran Paulson told Reuters the Swedish
  group would  be responsible for the technical side of the
  operation and would have no control over the product itself.
      He said one option under discussion for refining the gold
  ore would be to ship it to Boliden's Ronnskar copper smelter in
  northern Sweden.
      Paulson declined to give a figure for the deal but said it
  was strategically important since it increased Boliden's
  presence in Saudi Arabia.
      "Representatives from Petromin have visited Ronnskar
  already...We see Saudi Arabia as the expansion area of the
  future," he said.
      The new mine, which is being developed at Mahd adh Dhahab
  in the west of the country and should open in the first half of
  1988, would have an annual output of about 3,000 kilos of gold
  smelted from around 120,000 tons of ore, he said.
      Boliden already owns 50 pct of a gold ore deposit in Saudi
  Arabia, but the new venture will be the first Saudi mine to
  open in modern times.
      "This is a breakthrough for Boliden's sales of mining
  technology and knowhow," said the group's chief executive, Kjell
  Nilsson.
  

