- Exploring how we can help Pakistan in certain infrastructure: minister.
- According to him, without infrastructure, the economic aspects of the transaction are not attractive.
- Malik says “we will have some very big announcements.”
RIYADH: Saudi Mines Minister Bandar Alkhorayef confirmed on Wednesday that the kingdom’s mining company Manara Minerals was considering investing in Pakistan’s Reko Diq mine, saying the Saudi Development Fund could contribute more than 100 million dollars 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 this infrastructure, the economic aspects of the deal are not attractive, which is why, through the Saudi Development Fund, we are considering how we can finance it.”
The statement comes a day after Oil Minister Musadik Malik said Saudi mining company Manara Minerals could invest in the Reko Diq mine in the next two quarters.
“I am hopeful that in the next two quarters we will make some very big announcements,” Malik said on the sidelines of the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh, adding that they would be related to copper.
“So we are hopeful that this year we will make big announcements, both in relation to Reko Diq, but we also hope” in the mines surrounding it, he added.
When asked if Manara would be involved, Malik replied: “why not, of course.”
Manara, a joint venture between state-owned Ma’aden and the $925 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF), was established as part of the kingdom’s efforts to diversify its economy away from oil, including by purchasing minority stakes in assets abroad.
Executives from Manara visited Pakistan in May last year to discuss purchasing a stake in the Reko Diq mine, believed to be one of the largest underground copper and gold areas. developed in the world by the global mining company Barrick Gold, which owns the project jointly with Pakistan.
“Promising lithium project”
The Saudi minister also told Reuters that oil giant Aramco’s 2222.SE project to extract lithium was “promising, but not yet commercially viable.”
Aramco partnered with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for the pilot project, Bandar Alkhorayef said.
Lithium Infinity, also known as Lihytech, a startup launched by KAUST, is leading the mining project with the cooperation of Saudi mining company Ma’aden 1211.SE and Aramco.
Lithium is a key component of batteries in electric cars, laptops and smartphones. Reuters previously reported that national oil companies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates planned to extract ore from oil runoff.
Aramco and Ma’aden signed a non-binding agreement on Wednesday to explore the establishment of a joint venture for exploration and mining in the kingdom.
The proposed company would “focus on energy transition minerals, including the extraction of lithium from high-concentration deposits and the development of cost-effective direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies,” the two companies said during the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh.
Commercial lithium production could potentially start by 2027.