An earlier version of this page promised a map of where artisanal gold mining happens in Saudi Arabia. This version has no map, no region list and no site directions, and that is the point. Mining in the Kingdom is a licensed activity; taking part without a license has legal consequences; and the chemistry the sector relies on is one of the better-documented occupational hazards in public health. What follows is what the sector is, who regulates it, what the health authorities publish, and -- just as important -- which of those questions have no published answer at all.

Why this article has no map and no site list

Three reasons, in order of weight. The activity is regulated, so directions to a site are directions to something a reader may not lawfully join. The hazard is chemical and invisible, so a casual visit is not the low-risk outing a travel framing implies. And we found nothing official to map from: no Saudi authority we could read publishes locations of artisanal workings. A map built from guides and memory would be an invention, and an invention that sends people somewhere is worse than no article.

If your interest is professional -- geology, supply-chain due diligence, occupational health -- the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources is the body to approach directly, and the sections below are the vocabulary you will need.

What the term actually describes

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining, usually shortened to ASGM, is the term used in international law and in public health for gold mining and processing carried out by individual miners or small enterprises with limited capital and limited output, as distinct from industrial mining. It is not a style or a tradition; it is a category with legal consequences attached, because the mercury-based processing commonly used in it is the subject of a treaty obligation. The authoritative definition sits in the text of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which the Convention secretariat publishes in full. Read the definition there rather than any summary, including this one.

The World Health Organization treats it as an occupational health subject in its own right. Its 2016 publication is titled Environmental and occupational health hazards associated with artisanal and small-scale gold mining, and the organization describes it as a review of the literature on those hazards and outcomes that gives particular attention to considerations for women and children.

Who regulates mining in Saudi Arabia

The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources is the regulator. The Ministry's own English pages record that it was established by Royal Decree No. (A/472), dated 12/29/1440 AH, which transferred responsibility for mineral resources to it. The same pages publish the running totals: 3,215 mining licenses and 14,228 industrial facilities, stated as of June 2026.

The licensing services the Ministry lists are the practical face of that regime. There is a license amendment service, which allows the licensee to amend the minerals or increase the license area; a transfer service for moving an exploration or exploitation license to another eligible investor; and an export permit that allows license holders to export minerals and ores for commercial purposes. Every one of those presupposes a license. There is no published route for a person without one.

Two gaps in the Ministry's English pages, stated plainly. They name no specific mining law or regulation -- only the royal decree that created the Ministry -- and they list no channel for reporting a mining violation. The only reporting channel published there is for corruption, which is a different thing. If you need either the statute or a violations channel, ask the Ministry for it; do not assume a guide has it right.

Taking part without a license: what we could not source

This is the section where a number would be most useful and where we are not going to give you one. Imprisonment terms and fine ceilings for unlicensed mineral exploitation circulate widely in law-firm briefings and press reports. We found no official Saudi publication of them that we could read, in English or otherwise, so the figures are not printed here. What can be said without inventing anything: the regime is a licensing regime, the Ministry is its administrator, and an activity that requires a license is an activity with consequences for doing it without one. For the actual penalty, the exact article and the current version of it, the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources is the source, and the answer is worth having in writing before anyone goes near a working.

Mercury: what the health authorities do publish

Here the published record is strong, and it is the strongest reason to treat this subject as a health topic rather than a travel topic. The World Health Organization states that Mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining is particularly hazardous. On the substance itself:

• Mercury is toxic to human health, posing a particular threat to the development of the child in utero and early in life.
• Exposure to mercury - even small amounts - may cause serious health problems.
• On the nervous system: Symptoms include tremors, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular effects, headaches and cognitive and motor dysfunction.
• On the kidneys: Kidney effects have been reported, ranging from increased protein in the urine to kidney failure.
• On the two routes in: Human exposure occurs mainly through inhalation of elemental mercury vapours during industrial processes, while People are mainly exposed to methylmercury, an organic compound, when they eat fish and shellfish that contain the compound.
• On the unborn: Exposure of the fetus to methylmercury poses danger to the unborn child.

Note what the fact sheet does not do: it sets out no safe threshold. That is why a short visit is not obviously harmless and why protective equipment is not a detail. Read on 24 October 2026.

The treaty position, and the plan we could not find

Saudi Arabia is a Party to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The Convention secretariat's party list records the Kingdom's status as accession, dated 27 February 2019, among 154 Parties in total, read on 24 October 2026.

That matters for one specific reason. Article 7 of the Convention requires a Party that determines artisanal and small-scale gold mining in its territory to be more than insignificant to prepare a national action plan, and Annex C sets out what such a plan must contain. Those plans are published by the secretariat, and they are the normal place to find an official account of a country's ASGM sector: its scale, its practices and the measures aimed at it.

We searched for a Saudi plan and did not find one among the national action plans the secretariat publishes, searched on 24 October 2026. Read that carefully, because it cuts both ways. It is not evidence that nothing happens. It does mean there is no official, published measure of the scale of artisanal gold mining in the Kingdom -- which is exactly the figure a guide would have to invent in order to sound authoritative.

What expats should know

• There is no map here, and no published source to build one from. Treat any location list you find as unsourced.
• Mining is licensed by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, which publishes 3,215 mining licenses as of June 2026.
• Every service the Ministry publishes presupposes a license. There is no published route for anyone without one.
• Penalty figures are not published by the Ministry in a form we could read. Get them from the Ministry, not from a briefing.
• The Ministry's English pages name no mining statute and no violations channel. Ask for both.
• Mercury has no published safe threshold, and WHO singles out its use in this sector as particularly hazardous.
• The risk reaches people who never mine, through contaminated fish and through vapor, and it falls hardest on the unborn and the very young.
• Saudi Arabia acceded to the Minamata Convention on 27 February 2019.
• No Saudi ASGM national action plan is published by the treaty secretariat as far as we could find, so no official figure for the sector's scale exists.
• None of our approved reference values apply to this subject. The Saudi set covers rents, schooling, pharmacy items and baggage; nothing in it measures mining.

Where to check

The regulator, the royal decree, the license totals and the licensing services are from the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources. The treaty status is from the Minamata Convention secretariat's list of Parties, and the Convention text and annexes are published by the secretariat. The health statements are from the World Health Organization's fact sheet on mercury and health and its publication on health hazards associated with artisanal and small-scale gold mining. All read on 24 October 2026.

AI-Generated Content: This article was created with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. Please verify important information with official sources.