Saudi looking into $100m investment in Pakistan’s mining sector with focus on Reko Diq: minister

Saudi Mining Minister Bandar Alkhorayef told Reuters on Wednesday that Saudi Arabian mining company Manara Minerals was looking at investing in Balochistan’s Reko Diq mine. He added that 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 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.