Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host the 9th Arab Conference for Mineral Wealth in November 2006 within the existing cooperation between the Kingdom and the Rabat-based Arab Organization for Industrial and Mining Development. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency following the end of the meeting in Algiers today of the preparatory committee for the conference, Al-Naimi said the conference, which will be held under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, is considered the most important ever Arab meeting for the Arab mineral wealth sector. He stated that the Arab world is rich of both precious and industrial minerals both in quality and quantity, occupies a strategic situation in the world, and has access to the world's mineral largest markets, and to all seas, oceans and gulfs of the world. --More 20 30 Local Time 17 30 GMT
