Canadian mining group Ivanhoe Atlantic has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan's Mari Energies to pursue copper and gold exploration, marking the company's entry into South Asia and a new step in Islamabad's drive to attract foreign investment into its mineral sector.

Robert Friedland, the billionaire founder and chairman of I-Pulse Inc., which holds a majority stake in Ivanhoe Atlantic, announced the agreement on Thursday on the sidelines of the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum (PMIF) in Islamabad, Reuters reported.

The agreement was signed between Ivanhoe and Mari Minerals, the mining subsidiary of Mari Energies, and covers exploration of copper and gold deposits in Chagai district, Balochistan. Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik witnessed the signing ceremony, Radio Pakistan reported.

Early stages, no terms disclosed

Friedland said the company was in the early stages of establishing a local office in Pakistan and expected to sign another agreement on Friday. The companies have not disclosed any financial terms, specific exploration commitments or a timetable for a definitive agreement, Mining.com reported.

Asked about the structure of the partnership, Friedland said: "We're forming equal partnerships." He did not confirm whether the Mari Energies agreement would follow a 50-50 ownership split.

The model is familiar to Ivanhoe. The company already has a 50-50 exploration partnership with Ma'aden, Saudi Arabia's state-controlled mining company, which Friedland has pointed to as a possible template for its ventures in Pakistan.

Ministers court global miners

Malik used the forum to hold a series of bilateral meetings with international mining and engineering companies. His schedule included talks with John Thornton, chairman of Barrick Mining Corporation, which operates the Reko Diq copper-gold project in Chagai; Andrew Neilson, chief executive of Scottish engineering group Weir; Ibrahim El Gazzar, head of metals and minerals for the Middle East and North Africa at Trafigura; and representatives of Turkiye's Alak Holding.

Trafigura expressed interest in Pakistan's Zinc-Barite project as well as potential investment in liquefied petroleum gas, bonded storage and refinery infrastructure, while Weir said it was evaluating additional mining projects beyond its existing work at Reko Diq.

Mari Minerals, the mining arm of Mari Energies, already holds several copper and gold exploration projects in Pakistan. Reko Diq, in the same Chagai district, is the country's best-known copper-gold development, and the government has been using the forum to present the wider mineral belt around it to new investors.

What happens next

For now, the agreement is a first, non-binding step: an exploration understanding rather than a mining licence or an investment commitment. Its value will depend on what the geological work in Chagai finds and on the terms of any definitive agreement that follows.

Attention now turns to the second agreement Friedland said he expected to sign on Friday, the final day of the forum, and to whether other companies at the event convert their meetings with the petroleum ministry into signed deals of their own.