SDF looking to invest $100m in Pakistan’s mineral infrastructure: Saudi minister

Saudi Development Fund (SDF) could invest over $100 million in Pakistan's mining infrastructure, said kingdom Mining Minister Bandar Alkhorayef on Wednesday.

He also confirmed that Saudi mining company Manara Minerals was looking at investing in Pakistan's Reko Diq mine.

"Part of what we are looking at is how we can help Pakistan also in some infrastructure," Alkhorayef said in an interview on the sidelines of the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh.

"Without that infrastructure, the economics of the deal are not attractive, so through the Saudi Development Fund we are thinking about how we can finance it."

The statement came a day after Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said Saudi Arabian mining company Manara Minerals could invest in Reko Diq mine in the next two quarters

"I'm very hopeful that in the next quarter or two we will have very big announcements," Malik said on the sidelines of the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh, adding they would be copper-related.

"So we're very hopeful that this year, we will make some big announcements, both in the way of Reko Diq, but hopefully also" in mines around it, he added.

Asked if Manara would be involved, Malik said, "why not, of course."

Manara, a joint venture between state-controlled Ma'aden and the $925 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF), was set up as part of the kingdom's efforts to diversify its economy away from oil, including by buying minority stakes in assets overseas.

Executives from Manara visited Pakistan in May last year for talks about buying a stake in the Reko Diq mine, considered one of the world's largest underdeveloped copper-gold areas by global mining company Barrick Gold, which owns the project jointly with Pakistan.

‘Lithium project promising’

The Saudi minister also told Reuters that oil giant Aramco's 2222.SE project to extract lithium is "promising, but not yet commercially viable".

Aramco has partnered with the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) for the pilot, Bandar Alkhorayef said.

Lithium Infinity, also known as Lihytech, a startup launched out of KAUST, is leading the extraction project with cooperation from Saudi mining company Ma'aden 1211.SE and Aramco.

Lithium is a key component in the batteries of electric cars, laptops, and smartphones. Reuters previously reported that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates' national oil companies planned to extract the mineral from oil runoffs.

Aramco and Ma'aden on Wednesday signed a non-binding term sheet to explore the creation of a minerals exploration and mining joint venture in the kingdom.

The proposed venture "would focus on energy transition minerals, including extracting lithium from high concentration deposits and advancing cost-effective direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies," the two companies said during the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh.

Commercial production of lithium could potentially start by 2027.