Metals

Geographical and historical books indicate that the Asir region is rich in many minerals. In the mountains of Asir and Souqa, west of the city of Abha, there are mines of iron, pure lead, and sulfur compounds. In Jabal Tahlal, one of the mountains of Souda, there is an iron mine from which the Asir people extracted iron in primitive ways.

In the western slopes of the Asir mountains there is rock salt, and in Mount Dhankan near the port of Al Qahmah on the western coast, there is gold and silver.

And in the country of Bani Shahr, there is lead and sulfur. And copper, and there is a copper mine, And in Al Abla in Bishah there is an old mine. Abu Omar said: Al Abla is the zero mineral in the land of Qays...

What indicates that it was a mine are three wells carved into the top of the mountain, one of which reached a depth of eighty meters, in order to extract metals such as copper, gold and fluorite in the Abbasid era, and traces of fire and mining are still clearly visible to this day, and in Sarat Abidah the traces of wells dug into the rocks with their bright white colors suggest The redness indicates that they were ancient mines for extracting precious metals.

As for Tathlith and its environs, there are many mineral relics. It is said that gold and silver were extracted from this area during the era of the Abbasid state and sent to Baghdad on that date. It is known that there are now about ten ancient mining sites in Tathlith Governorate, especially in the village of Al-Hijra, which is located 4 km south of Al-Hadah.

It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the region, as it contains seven sites for extracting minerals.

Al-Hajira mine is one of the most important sites, as Al-Hamdani mentioned it in his book called The Two Jewels, and he said that it is one of the most important archaeological sites in the region. The most prolific and purest mine in the Arabian Peninsula was finally discovered and the state is working to invest in it. It is close to the center of Al-Hadah, 75 km south of Tathlith, during the current seventh development plan.

Several mining instruments were issued to take advantage of the minerals and ores available in the region and building materials sites until the year 1420 AH, represented by two exploration licenses, one mining concession, two mining licenses, and 84 building materials permits.

Gold is considered one of the minerals discovered in the region, as the Al-Hajjar deposit is located 65 km west of the city of Bisha, and contains 5 million tons of gold ore at a rate of 2.5 grams per ton, and its use phase began with a production rate of 500 thousand tons as of April 2001 AD. There is also nickel ore in the region at the Hadba site 175 km east of the city of Abha, and it contains 2.7 million tons with a concentration of 0.92%. Nickel.