United States companies are exploring opportunities to take over and develop smaller mines in Pakistan, alongside more significant potential investments in larger projects involving copper and other critical minerals such as antimony, amid a broader push by the US administration to secure global critical mineral supply chains. Speaking to journalists at a background briefing, a US Embassy official said Washington had been focusing on critical mineral supply chains around the world, with particular attention on Pakistan, working through multilateral agencies, the US International Development Finance Corporation, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
The official said the US Exim Bank had committed $1.25 billion for the Reko Diq copper-gold project in Balochistan, though financing terms were still being finalized. The remarks coincided with Pakistan-US discussions on bilateral trade at a virtual meeting between Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, where both sides reviewed progress on negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement. The Ministry of Finance said the two officials noted that negotiations on the proposed reciprocal trade framework had advanced significantly and reaffirmed their shared commitment to concluding the agreement soon.
According to the US Embassy official, the American embassy and the administration in Washington have been working with US companies to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan, including trade arrangements to purchase offtake from small mines in Pakistan for use or processing in the United States, with some products potentially supplying chains in Germany, South Korea, and elsewhere. The official said Pakistan possesses many critical minerals, including significant antimony concentrations, though not large deposits comparable to Reko Diq, and noted that roughly 60 critical minerals found in Pakistan carry importance for aircraft manufacturing, semiconductors, defense equipment, and other supply chains relevant to American industry. He added that Pakistan’s mineral sector currently contributes about 3 percent to national GDP, with Reko Diq alone expected to add another 0.5 percent once fully operational, and said a number of US companies are currently engaged with Pakistani authorities and firms to develop critical mineral mines as part of the administration’s broader focus on strengthening supply chains for national defense and industry.
On the status of Reko Diq specifically, the official said the multibillion dollar project is moving forward, though more slowly than originally planned, given its scale and the ongoing discussions among financial institutions, including the International Finance Corporation, over financing terms. He said the US has been encouraging Pakistan to provide a level playing field for American companies and strengthen local institutions such as the Geological Survey of Pakistan to carry out feasibility studies that would help US firms identify viable investment opportunities, while acknowledging that the Pakistani government has been doing what it can to facilitate US and other international companies, though investment ultimately cannot flow without further reducing bureaucratic red tape. He cited US Strategic Metals’ export of a mineral consignment supplied by the Frontier Works Organization, currently being processed in the United States, as an example of the kind of trade and investment activity both sides are looking to expand. Asked about competition between the US and China for mineral sector investments in Pakistan, the official said the dynamic was not framed as a binary choice between the two countries, noting that Pakistan is seeking investment from around the world, including from Australia, Canada, and other nations, which could also help train the local workforce alongside American and Chinese involvement. On security conditions in Balochistan, he acknowledged the challenges were real but said opportunities also existed given highly prospective mineral deposits in areas including Chitral, Waziristan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Balochistan, adding that industry participants understood these risks and how to navigate them given the potential returns from the region’s mineral wealth.
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