Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K.A.CARE) announced the completion of the graduation of the first batch of its employees in the program to develop national cadres in uranium mining.

The program of developing Saudi cadres, which falls under the umbrella of the uranium mining project in the central region of Jordan, was conducted by the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission and the Jordanian Uranium Mining Company.

During the ceremony, the speakers thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman for according great support to K.A.CARE.

They also lauded Minister of Energy Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman for his continuous follow-up, motivation and support for the city and its vital projects.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Khaled Al-Sultan, president of K.A.CARE, said the graduation of the first batch coincided with the city’s preparations for the second phase of the exploration project for uranium and thorium ores in the Kingdom.

“The exploration is a great opportunity to develop and support the expertise of qualified and specialized Saudis in this field through their actual field participation and application of training and scientific theories in the field of real work.

“The K.A.CARE employees, who have completed their training in the first batch and received the technical skills necessary to support the work, will work on the second exploration project of uranium and thorium ores in the Kingdom.”

Al-Sultan said the city is currently working, in partnership with the Saudi Geological Survey and the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden), in a project to explore uranium and thorium ores in the Kingdom, which requires a large number of qualified Saudi staff.

He noted that the training program would provide the specialists with the technical skills necessary to work in the Saudi project.

“K.A.CARE aims to chalk out mechanisms and methods for managing uranium production projects that are economically, environmentally and socially feasible, with the aim of exploring and extracting uranium concentrations from its ores in the Kingdom,” he said.

The program to develop national cadres in uranium mining includes sending 50 trainees through three batches. The training includes five different tracks related to uranium exploration and mining.

They are field exploration, laboratory analysis, data analysis, environmental protection, and engineering process. Uranium mining and exploration is one of the components of the national project for atomic energy in the Kingdom.