As part of its ongoing efforts to regulate the mining sector and ensure that facilities comply with regulations, the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources announced the implementation of 311 field inspection tours of a number of mining sites in various regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during December 2025. These tours come as a confirmation of the Ministry’s commitment to implementing the Mining Investment Law, where the Ministry adopts the principle of issuing warnings when initial violations are detected, in application of the policy of “warning before imposing the penalty,” which reflects a corrective approach aimed at raising the level of compliance before resorting to punitive measures.

Details of inspection tours and their geographical distribution

The official spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, Jarrah Al-Jarrah, revealed the geographical distribution of these intensive inspection tours, with the Eastern Province topping the list with 92 inspection tours, followed by the Riyadh region with 85 tours, then the Asir region with 51 tours, and the Madinah region recorded 42 tours on mining sites.

The monitoring efforts extended to the rest of the Kingdom, with 18 inspection tours conducted in the Tabuk region, 9 in the Makkah region, 6 in the Hail region, and 5 in the Najran region. The tours also included one visit each to the Jazan, Al-Baha, and Al-Jawf regions, ensuring comprehensive coverage of the Kingdom's geographical area.

The importance of oversight in protecting wealth and societies

The Minister affirmed the Ministry's commitment to continuing its inspection tours and monitoring all mining activities. These field visits aim to ensure the sector's protection from irregular practices that could harm the investment environment or unjustly deplete resources. He also emphasized the importance of preserving mineral wealth to achieve its optimal exploitation, as well as protecting communities adjacent to mining areas from any negative impacts, in accordance with the strict regulations stipulated in the new Mining Investment Law.

The mining sector: the third pillar of national industry

These oversight tours are of paramount strategic importance as Saudi Arabia, within its Vision 2030, aims to establish the mining sector as the third pillar of national industry, alongside oil, gas, and petrochemicals. Through these measures, the Ministry seeks to maximize the value derived from mineral resources and enhance the sector's attractiveness to both local and international investors by providing a transparent and regulated operating environment.

Official estimates indicate that the value of untapped mineral resources in the Kingdom is approximately 9.3 trillion riyals. These resources are spread across more than 5,300 sites, making effective monitoring an urgent necessity to ensure the sustainability of these resources, diversify national income sources, and develop non-oil revenues, thus serving the national economy and creating new job opportunities for citizens.

The Saudi Ministry of Education has issued a decisive decision to revoke the licenses of 74 private schools across several cities in the Kingdom. This action is part of the Ministry's ongoing efforts to ensure the quality of education and provide a safe and stimulating school environment for students. The decision followed thorough and intensive monitoring that revealed significant violations related to student safety and educational quality standards, as well as non-compliance with regulations and requirements established by the relevant authorities.

Reasons for license cancellations and observed violations

The ministry explained in its statement that the violations that warranted this strict measure ranged from administrative and technical to security-related issues. The most prominent violation was the lack of a valid operating license, the essential document that grants the school the right to conduct educational activities. The absence of a safety license (civil defense certificate) was also a major reason for the closure, as this certificate is an indispensable requirement to ensure the safety of lives and property within educational facilities and confirms that the buildings are free from hazards that could threaten student safety.

Students' fate and transfer procedures

Out of concern for the well-being of students and to ensure their education is not disrupted by this decision, the Ministry of Education announced immediate measures to address their situation. Students transferred from closed schools will be directly enrolled in public schools to guarantee the continuity of their studies. Simultaneously, the Ministry has provided parents with the option to transfer their children to other private schools of their choice, according to their preferences and residential locations, thus offering significant flexibility in dealing with this exceptional circumstance.

Context of the decision and the importance of compliance with regulations

This move by the Ministry of Education comes within the framework of a comprehensive strategy aimed at raising the efficiency of the private education sector in the Kingdom, in line with the objectives of Vision 2030, which places education and its quality at the forefront of its priorities. Through these measures, the Ministry affirms that it will not tolerate any shortcomings that compromise student safety or diminish the quality of educational outcomes. This decision serves as a clear message to all investors in the education sector regarding the necessity of full compliance with the updated standards and requirements.

Gradual implementation of regulatory procedures

The ministry indicated that the closure decision was not sudden, but rather came after exhausting all legal avenues. The decision was preceded by a series of regulatory measures and a gradual process of issuing warnings to the violating schools, granting them grace periods to rectify their situations. However, the schools' failure to respond to the corrective requirements, the continuation of violations that increased the level of potential risks, and the inability of the licensees to meet the necessary operational requirements, necessitated the decision to revoke their licenses in order to protect the public interest.

The intensive monitoring tours carried out by the ministry’s teams during the past period showed that a number of schools did not comply with updating their licenses or meeting the updated requirements, which necessitated decisive intervention to ensure a safe and stable educational environment for all the sons and daughters of the nation.