Located in the Wadi Bidah mineral district in western Saudi Arabia, the Hawiah deposit consists of gold near the surface and copper-gold-zinc sulphide ore at depth.

Through its joint venture Gold and Minerals (G&M), KEFI and local Saudi business ARTAR plan an initial 2,500m scout drilling program along the most prospective portion of the ridgeline at Hawiah.

KEFI has installed a drilling rig and team at Hawiah to test the extent of gold mineralisation in the upper oxidised zone. The initial drilling is to target the strongest copper grades.

"Hawiah has all the hallmarks of being a great target within a significant copper-gold-zinc VMS district," said KEFI executive chairman Harry Anagnostaras-Adams.

KEFI manages and holds a 40% stake in G&M, and local Saudi Arabian partner ARTAR owns the rest. The company has two exploration licences in Saudi Arabia, one for Hawiah and the other for Jibal Qutman, where it has identified 700,000oz of gold.

"Major deposits have already been discovered and developed in the Arabian Nubian Shield and we are confident of positive results from our exploration programme, the results of which we will report as results warrant over the coming weeks and months," said Anagnostaras-Adams.

Geophysical surveys and previous work suggest the area has a continuous anomaly that indicates sulphide mineralisation 50-300m below the ridge.

Aside from Hawiah, KEFI is also evaluating an open cut, heap leach operation and exploring for further shallow gold resources at Jibal Qutman. The joint venture has applied for exploration licences within Wadi Bidah, but the applications are on hold until the country's new mining law is finalised.

The Saudi government's Vision 2030: National Transformation Program 2020 is intended to deliver investment, transparency and a new online platform for mining licence applications and management when it receives the Royal Decree sometime between now and the end of 2020.

KEFI shares (LSE: KEFI) opened at 1p on Monday. The company's shares have fallen a little since January, when they were worth 1.9p. The company's market capitalisation is £7.23 million.