Kuya Silver Corporation announced that in partnership with Sumou Holding has been awarded the Umm Hadid mineral exploration license, located in central KSA. Earlier in 2023, Kuya Silver was invited to form a consortium with Sumou for the purpose of bidding on the Umm Hadid project in a recent round of mineral exploration properties opened for acquisition in 2023, and the consortium was successfully pre-qualified in June 2023. Kuya Silver provided the technical expertise for the consortium, which outlined a comprehensive five-year exploration plan focused on defining resources at the Umm Hadid Silver Project, and advancing mine development at an accelerated pace.

Sumou, will be the primary financial partner, and provided important local expertise and funding for the bid, including a bond representing a portion of the committed exploration budget. In return for its technical leadership role in the winning bid, Kuya Silver will be granted a 5% interest in a new company to be established by the consortium in KSA and expects to earn a larger interest over time by entering into and fulfilling a longer-term agreement as the technical operator of the project. The Umm Hadid project covers approximately 246 square kilometers (14 x 18 km), is located near the centre of the Arabian Peninsula, and based on limited historical exploration, is believed to be prospective for silver, gold and base metals.

The property hosts NW trending Proterozoic rocks and is interpreted to be cored by a large granodiorite intrusion and two large, crustal-scale NW-trending shear zones are located on either side of the property. Limited 1970s and 80s era trenching and drilling work done by BRGM (French geological survey) uncovered and traced several mineralized veins, seemingly trending NW and NE, and hosting silver, gold, copper, lead and zinc. The mineralization is thought to be hosted in narrow, high-grade orogenic veins, but the mineralization could also potentially be epithermal.