The Manara officials are part of a larger delegation of Saudi investors and businesses that arrived in Islamabad on Sunday, according to a document listing the delegation’s leaders seen by Reuters.
The document said Manara Minerals’ general manager wanted to “continue negotiations regarding the Leko Diku project.”
Barrick announced it will invest up to $10 billion in the development of the project.
Manara Minerals, a joint venture between Saudi state mining company Maaden and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), declined to comment.
Pakistan’s Oil Minister Musaddiq Malik and Commerce Minister Jam Kamal on Monday said a Saudi delegation representing 30 investors and companies will meet with Pakistani companies to consider investments in sectors such as agriculture, mining, aviation and livestock. Then he announced.
They did not name the Saudi company.
Manara’s acting CEO Robert Wilt told Reuters in an interview in January that the company was in talks to potentially acquire a stake in the Leko Diku mine.
Bloomberg reported that Manara was initially interested in investing $1 billion to acquire a minority stake in the copper mine.
Petroleum Minister Malik, who was appointed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to be the key figure in Saudi investment, also did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The Saudi delegation’s visit to Islamabad follows last month’s visit by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah to Islamabad, where he was briefed by Pakistani authorities on various avenues for investment in the country.
Pakistan, which is on the road to economic recovery after securing an IMF bailout, is in dire need of foreign investment to combat its chronic balance of payments crisis.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Additional reporting by Pesha Magid in Riyadh; Editing by Susan Fenton)
