The Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2026 opens in Islamabad on Thursday, 12 November, for two days at the Jinnah Convention Centre. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will inaugurate the forum, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will chair its concluding session on Friday, 13 November.

Dar stayed back from the prime minister's trip to Antalya in Turkiye for the COP31 climate conference to inaugurate the Margalla Dialogue, which opens in Islamabad on Tuesday, and the minerals forum, highly placed diplomatic sources told The News on Monday. The sources said no other conclusion should be drawn from the decision, and that it would have been difficult to postpone either event. The COP31 summit starts on Wednesday and will be inaugurated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Who will be there

The forum is expected to bring together policymakers, mining executives, investors, financial institutions and technical experts from Pakistan and abroad. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister Dar and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir are among the key speakers, alongside Energy Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, who will give the welcome address on the opening day, and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.

International speakers include Robert Friedland of Ivanhoe Mines, John L. Thornton of Barrick Mining and Isabel Chatterton of the Asian Development Bank. The forum's president, Ahmed Hayat Lak, who is also the managing director and chief executive of the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), is leading the event, with Wood Mackenzie acting as the lead conference producer.

What the forum will cover

The forum is described as a curated showcase of Pakistan's expanding mineral landscape and leading global technologies. It will cover exploration and projects such as Reko Diq, alongside an international exhibition for mining technology and ventures.

Sessions will cover critical minerals and the energy transition, financing for early-stage exploration, building a future-ready mining workforce, women's participation in the sector, and infrastructure and export corridors. A technical programme of more than 50 peer-reviewed papers will run alongside the main conference, with geological survey data, technology assessments and a workshop on innovation in critical minerals mining.

Building on last year's forum

The forum is organised by the Government of Pakistan and endorsed by the Special Investment Facilitation Council, with OGDC as its founding partner. Strategic partners include Pakistan Petroleum, Mari Energies, the Government Holdings company, the Reko Diq Mining Company and the Frontier Works Organisation.

Last year's forum drew 5,000 delegates from more than 50 countries and produced 16 memorandums of understanding and agreements, according to the organisers. This year's event aims to turn dialogue into investment, partnerships and projects across exploration, processing and sustainable mining, and is viewed as a strategic conference on policy and governance rather than a purely commercial gathering.

With global demand for critical minerals rising, the government is presenting the forum as a chance to connect Pakistan's mineral reserves with international capital and technology. Whether that interest turns into signed deals will become clear when the forum meets on Thursday and Friday.