SaudiArabia'sRekoDiqStakeandWhatItSignalsforNorthernPakistan'sCopper-GoldBelt
Saudi Arabia is pursuing a 15% stake in Pakistan's Reko Diq copper-gold project, backed by a reported $540 million commitment. Our Shigar and Kharmang concessions carry the same commodity pairing, at a much earlier stage.
Saudi Arabia's own mining sector had a record 2025: exploitation licences up 220 percent domestically and investment reaching $11.7 billion. That appetite has extended into Pakistan directly. The Kingdom has pursued a 15 percent stake in Reko Diq, Pakistan's copper-gold project in Balochistan, backed by a reported $540 million commitment, and the Saudi Fund for Development has signalled it may put over $100 million more into Pakistani mining infrastructure. Broader estimates put combined Saudi and UAE investment interest in Pakistan as high as $50 billion over five years, with mining one part of that.
Reko Diq is a copper-gold deposit at a scale most projects never reach, with reserves reported at 13.1 million tonnes of copper and 17.9 million ounces of gold and a mine life projected past three decades. Our own Shigar concession carries the same commodity pairing, copper ore with gold as a strong secondary indication, in the same Karakoram (Shyok) Suture structural belt that regional surveys have logged anomalous gold, platinum, silver, and copper values along. Kharmang, in the same district, adds copper, iron, and silver in a documented antimony corridor. Neither is Reko Diq in scale. Both sit in the same commodity category that just drew a nine-figure Saudi commitment.
What that tells a Saudi investor is less about any single deal and more about risk appetite: Saudi capital is already comfortable underwriting Pakistani copper-gold mining risk at scale. An earlier-stage, licensed concession in the same commodity pairing is a different point on the same curve, not a different asset class. More on how that would actually be structured is on our Saudi Arabia market page.
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