All known gold occurrences in Saudi Arabia are found in the Precambrian rocks of the Arabian Shield which is contemporaneous with the Nubian Shield of Egypt and Sudan. The Arabian-Nubian Shield is itself part of the much larger East African orogen that extends throughout Eastern Africa and constituted the core of the late-Precambrian Gondwana super-continent. The exposed Arabian Shield forms the western segment of the Arabian Peninsula and covers an area of approximately 630,000 km2 in Saudi Arabia (plus smaller areas in Yemen and Jordan). It is bounded to the west by the Red Sea rift valley and its coastal plain (Tihama), and to the north and east by Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks. Including extensions in the northwest and southeast, the Shield is about 1,800 km long and has a maximum width of 700 km. Approximately 81,000 km2 of the Shield within the Kingdom is overlain by Cenozoic basaltic lava fields (harrats).

The history of mining and prospecting in the Arabian Peninsula dates back some 5,000 years, predating the reign of King Solomon (ca 961-922 BC). The most active period of mineral exploitation in ancient times, however, coincided with the great expansion of the Islamic culture throughout the Middle East region during the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 AD). Notable epochs of gold mining in Saudi, Arabia include:

• early periods at about 3,000 BC and 1,000 BC;
• the Islamic Abbasid period between 750 and 1258 AD; and
• a modern period since 1936 AD.

The numerous and widespread ancient workings found throughout the Shield attest to the thorough and intensive prospecting for gold and secondary copper mineralisation undertaken during those times. These occurrences are abundant and widespread and commonly present as ancient artisanal mines developed on gold-bearing quartz veins and gossans and more rarely placers. The distribution and concentrations of the ancient mines provides an invaluable 'first-order' geochemical survey and a guide to areas of further potential.

Most of the ancient mines operated on a very small scale and are marked by stone ruins, partially open stopes and waste dumps. There are isolated examples of extensive mining operations which include the Mahd adh Dhahab ('The Cradle of Gold') mine where, prior to modern (1939) reactivation, there was an estimated 1 Mt of tailings and dumps in proximity to workings which exceeded 85m in depth.