US lists Pak’s Reko Diq mine as one of key investments to secure supply chains

The US Export Import Bank’s $1.25 billion loan to finance the copper and gold mine in Pakistan’s troubled Balochistan province is listed alongside the newly announced $10 billion Project Vault

Washington: The US State Department listed Pakistan’s Reko Diq mine as one of America’s crucial foreign critical minerals investments aimed at securing Washington’s supply chains.

US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Jacob Helberg, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Senior Director for Global Supply Chains, David Copley attend the Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (REUTERS)

The US Export Import Bank’s $1.25 billion loan to finance the copper and gold mine in Pakistan’s troubled Balochistan province is listed alongside the newly announced $10 billion Project Vault - which will create a domestic strategic critical minerals reserve - in a fact sheet released after Washington hosted a critical minerals ministerial summit on Wednesday. A delegation from Pakistan also attended the 55-nation conference, with India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also in attendance.

Washington announced in December that the US EXIM Bank had approved $1.25 billion in financing to support critical minerals mining at Reko Diq.

“In the coming years, EXIM’s project financing will bring in up to $2 billion in high-quality U.S. mining equipment and services needed to build and operate the Reko Diq mine, along with creating an estimated 6,000 jobs in the US and 7,500 jobs in Balochistan, Pakistan,” said diplomat Natalie Baker, who serves as America’s Charge d’Affaires in Pakistan in a statement at the time. Baker added that the project could serve as a model for similar mining projects that could benefit US exporters.

“The Trump administration has made the forging of deals exactly like this one central to American diplomacy. We look forward to seeing further agreements between US companies and their Pakistani counterparts in the critical minerals and mining sector,” Baker added.

Earlier in September 2025, Pakistan’s Frontier Works Organisation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a US delegation led by US Strategic Metals on critical minerals. Pakistan’s political leadership has also pitched itself as a key US partner in the sector. Notably, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir presented Trump with a wooden box with rare earth minerals during their meeting in Washington in September.