Which mineral resource, mined extensively at Mahd adh Dhahab ('Cradle of Gold') between Mecca and Medina, has been extracted since ancient Biblical and Islamic eras?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Gold and silver
- Step 1: Examine historical metallurgy: Mahd adh Dhahab is the leading historic gold mine in the Arabian Peninsula, mined during King Solomon's era and the Abbasid Caliphate.
- Step 2: Modern underground mining operated by Ma'aden extracts significant volumes of gold and silver from polymetallic quartz-vein deposits.
Answer
Gold and silver.
Why not the others: 'Lithium and cobalt' are battery metals explored elsewhere; 'Uranium and thorium' are nuclear minerals; 'Platinum' is rare and not the primary ore of Mahd adh Dhahab.
Practise more Climate, Natural Resources and Conservation.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed General Knowledge (Saudi Arabia) mock tests.
More Climate, Natural Resources and Conservation questions
- What primary natural resource, discovered at Dammam Well No. 7 ('Prosperity Well') in 1938, transformed the economy of Saudi Arabia?
- What climate classification characterizes the overwhelming majority of the land area of Saudi Arabia according to the Köppen-Geiger climate…
- What industrial technology does Saudi Arabia rely on more than any other nation to supply the majority of its domestic urban potable drinkin…
- Which world-renowned national oil company, headquartered in Dhahran, manages the Kingdom's vast petroleum reserves?
- Which native ungulate species, once declared extinct in the wild, was successfully reintroduced into protected reserves across Saudi Arabia…
- What type of deep underground water reservoirs, accumulated during prehistoric pluvial periods, provide vital non-renewable water for agricu…