Ines Scotland (CEO / Miner)

Not many people (particularly women!) think turning 40 is good news.

But for Ines Scotland it was cause for celebration. Hitting the "Big Four-O" made it easier for her to get permission to enter Saudi Arabia for business.

“I immediately applied for my multiple-entry visa,” she says, laughing. “It seems you’re considered ‘no longer desirable’, and I thought, well, OK, it doesn’t bother me.”

Ms Scotland is chief executive of Citadel Resources Group, a Melbourne mining company that is in partnership with the Saudi government to explore the kingdom’s newly opened mines; ones largely untouched since, it is said, the time of King Solomon.

Soft-spoken and just over five feet (1.5 metres) tall, in a pinstriped suit and black patent leather peep-toe heels, Ms Scotland seems an unlikely corporate conquistador. Then again, she bears a dossier marked by the unexpected: woman; miner; a beautiful baby contest winner who now wears steel-toed boots, searching the Arabian peninsula for copper and gold.

Click here to read the full story:
By Angela Shaha
The National, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Related links:
Shhhh...Susan's In Saudi