In a decisive move to solidify its status as a central powerhouse for global critical minerals, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM) has announced that the sixth edition of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) will take place from January 12–14, 2027, in Riyadh. Convening under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the marquee gathering will center on the theme “Global Collaboration for Resilient Mineral Supply.”
The announcement comes as global industrial supply chains face increasing pressures to diversify and scale up critical raw materials essential for energy transition technologies and advanced manufacturing. FMF 2027 aims to bridge these supply vulnerabilities by focusing on capital mobilization, rapid project execution, and accelerating the development of processing value chains across Saudi Arabia and the broader “Super Region”—spanning Africa, West and Central Asia, and Latin America.
FMF 2027 builds on a trajectory of commercial momentum. The forum’s fifth edition, held in January 2026, gathered senior government leaders from 91 countries, representatives from over 64 international and non-governmental organizations, and 21,500 industry executives and investors from 175 nations.
More importantly, the summit served as a major engine for dealmaking. The 2026 event recorded 132 commercial agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) valued at over $26.7 billion. Over its five-year history, the FMF platform has facilitated a cumulative 398 deals worth a staggering $75.2 billion, demonstrating its evolution from a diplomatic dialogue into an institutional capital engine.
Organizers emphasize that the upcoming edition will sharpen its focus on actionable investment structures. The forum will be headlined by its signature government-led Ministerial Roundtable, bringing together policymakers, financial institutions, mining majors, and multilateral stakeholders to align strategic interests.
To accelerate project pipelines, FMF 2027 will feature expanded ‘Gateway to Funding’ initiatives designed to connect institutional investors with scalable projects across the Super Region using novel financing instruments and joint-venture frameworks. Additionally, the forum will host ‘State of the Sector’ intelligence sessions—an extension of the Future Minerals Barometer—to deliver macroeconomic outlooks, supply-demand balances, and strategic commodity insights for executive decision-makers.
Saudi Arabia’s aggressive expansion of FMF mirrors the rapid transformation of its domestic mining ecosystem under the Kingdom’s Comprehensive Mining and Mineral Industries Strategy. Supported by transparent tender licensing protocols and supportive regulatory frameworks, Saudi Arabia has nurtured domestic capabilities across high-value downstream sectors, including aluminum, iron, steel, and titanium.
This institutional push has catalyzed a dramatic surge in private-sector exploration. Domestic exploration expenditure skyrocketed from $54.7 million in 2020 to a record high of $362.7 million in 2025, while the roster of active exploration firms in the Kingdom expanded from six to 191 over the same period.
Highlighting the Kingdom’s untapped resource potential, His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Energy and Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, recently disclosed significant geological breakthroughs at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference in Vienna.
“Exploration and geological studies at the Jabal Sayid Rare Earth Elements project in the Madinah Region have revealed estimated resources of 114 million tonnes of ore containing high concentrations of rare earth elements—particularly heavy rare earths—alongside promising concentrations of uranium,” Prince Abdulaziz stated during his address to delegates.
As industrial economies race to secure supply chain transparency and resource sovereignty, FMF 2027 is positioned to serve as the chief platform converting ambition into industrial reality, uniting governments, miners, and capital markets behind a unified, resilient minerals ecosystem.
