Gold mine in Pakistan: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are discussing the oil-rich kingdom’s potential investment in Pakistan due to newly discovered copper and gold mines valued at an extraordinary Rs 80,000 crore.
The two countries are in “advanced” stages of discussion over Saudi Arabia’s investment in the Reko Diq copper and gold mine, which is situated in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, according to a Reuters report.
Saudi Arabia made Pakistan an offer in September of last year to fund 15% of the project. According to Arab News, Pakistan Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik stated on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were in “advanced stages” of developing a “very large asset” and that the necessary homework had been finished.
“We are now under non-disclosure, but both teams have developed valuation frameworks, the valuation ranges are established, and both teams are now empowered to bargain. On the outside of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Malik was cited as stating, “We are expecting very big announcements very soon,” but he could not elaborate.
A Saudi mining corporation might put money into Pakistan’s gold mine.
The Reko Diq mine in Pakistan is the target of an investment by Saudi Arabian mining company Manara Minerals, which might take place over the next six months, according to a Reuters report. According to Malik, “I’m very hopeful that in the next quarter or two we will have very big announcements,” noted Reuters.
Pakistan is in discussions with other Gulf nations over mining customers, the minister of Pakistan stated, adding that Islamabad is “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.”
As part of the Kingdom’s efforts to diversify its economy away from oil, particularly by purchasing minority holdings in assets abroad, the $925 billion Public Investing Fund (PIF) and Saudi state-controlled miner Ma’aden formed Manara Minerals.
Manara executives traveled to Pakistan in May 2024 to discuss purchasing a share in the Reko Diq mine. Robert Wilt, the company’s acting CEO at the time and current head of Ma’aden, said that purchasing a share in Reko Diq was one of several options the business was considering.
Around 200 kilograms of gold and 1,700 tons of copper were extracted in the first four months of the Reko Diq mine’s 1995 excavation, according to a number of publications. At the time, scientists estimated that the mine might contain 400 million tons of gold, which is worth $1 trillion.
“Largest gold mine in the world”
According to a Bloomberg report, one of the world’s largest underdeveloped copper-gold mines, Reko Diq is jointly owned by Pakistan and the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold Corp. It has the potential to produce an estimated 200,000 tons of copper and 250,000 ounces of gold annually for more than 50 years.
200 kilograms of gold and 1,700 tons of copper were reportedly retrieved in the first four months of the 1995 excavation of the Reko Diq mine. Around 400 million tons of gold, worth more than $1 trillion, were thought to be contained in the mine by experts at the time.
The investment in the undeveloped gold mine, in which Pakistan owns a 50% part, is a boon to the financially challenged country whose economy has collapsed in recent years, with its debt-to-GDP ratio rising to 42%.
