RIYADH(BullionStreet): Nearly five years after the Saudi government opened up the land for large-scale commercial exploration and production of gold,new generation fortune hunters are seeking the yellow metal under it's sands.

Saudi Arabia, which sits on vast oil reserves has intensified its effort to divert its income sources and looked for gold in particular these days, analysts said.

In the latest devolopment, KEFI Minerals revealed positive drill results from the Jibal Qutman project and laid out potential plans that could see early production.

Saudi Arabia's state-run mining company, Ma'aden has extensively conducted mining across the country now owns five gold mines and two multibillion-dollar projects in the development and planning stages.

The company recently said it's gold production is expected to rise 30 percent by 2014.

Saudi Arabia and Sudan had earlier planned to produce within three years gold, silver and copper in large quantities from the bottom of the Red Sea, trying to execute a project in planning for almost four decades.

Both Arab countries, which lie across each other in the Red Sea, have been sounding out since the mid-seventies on how to exploit large mineral deposits suspected to be 2,000 metres below sea levels.

However, Saudi Arabia's vast inland deserts remained mostly unexplored for gold and needs more time to devolop.