Saudi minister confirms Manara Minerals looking at investing in Reko Diq mine

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Mining Minister Bandar Alkhorayef confirmed on Wednesday that Saudi mining company Manara Minerals was looking at investing in Pakistan’s Reko Diq mine.

The minister said the Saudi Development Fund could contribute over $100 million to Pakistan’s mining infrastructure.

“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.” Manara, a joint venture between state-controlled miner 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.

On Tuesday, Pakistan Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said Manara Minerals could invest in Pakistan’s 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 Tuesday 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.”

Meanwhile, Bandar Alkhorayef also apprised that Saudi Arabian state oil giant Aramco’s project to extract lithium was “promising, but not yet commercially viable”. Aramco partnered with the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) for the pilot, Bandar Alkhorayef said.

Lithium Infinity, also known as Lihytech, a start-up launched out of KAUST, is leading the extraction project with cooperation from Saudi mining company Ma’aden and Aramco. Lithium is a key component in the batteries of electric cars, laptops and smartphones.