Silicon in Saudi Arabia and its potential impact on the Saudi economy

Abstract

Today the need for alternative income resources in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is strategic in helping the country become less dependent on oil as an economic resource. Silica is found in abundance in the Kingdom because it is mainly a desert landscape. We investigated whether different areas of Saudi Arabia may be more abundant in Silicon than others. We hypothesised that there would be no significant difference in content of silica regardless of what region the sample was taken from. Results were significant. There were significant amounts of silica found in both desert samples: Desert sample 1 (Rub' al Khali) contained 39.44% of silicon and desert sample 2 (Ad Dahna') contained 45.31% of silicon. Statistical analysis revealed that the samples taken from the two different deserts were significantly different from each other indicating different areas of the deserts of Saudi Arabia may be more or less abundant in silica than others.