Manara Minerals Vale Stake: Inside Saudi Arabia’s Bold First Overseas Mining Bet

Manara’s first completed deal was its splashiest. Sources describe it as a $2.6 billion stake in Vale SA’s base metals unit, while other reporting frames it as a $2.5 billion 10% stake in Vale Base Metals that was spun off from Vale in 2024. Either way, this was the one overseas acquisition that Manara has completed despite bidding for assets across Africa and Asia. The investment also created a tangible flow of material: as part of the Vale deal, Manara receives offtake of copper and nickel, which it has been tendering.

That offtake matters because it connects equity investing to downstream commercial execution. Manara was designed to support processing ambitions at home, including for state-owned Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Maaden). It also reflects a broader national push to secure critical minerals, including copper and lithium, that are essential for electric vehicles and renewable energy. Riyadh has separately estimated its untapped mineral resources, including phosphate, gold, bauxite and rare earth elements, at about $2.5 trillion, underlining why the kingdom wants both domestic development and overseas supply links.

Why the Manara Minerals Vale Stake Is Now Driving a Trading Pivot

After the Vale entry, Manara has struggled to find more deals at an attractive valuation. That has pushed the firm to weigh new options that look less like classic minority stakes and more like market-facing partnerships. People familiar with the talks said Manara has reached out to more than a dozen trading companies. The options being considered include forming an official trading joint venture, striking an agency agreement where a trader helps with logistics, or working together on a deal-by-deal basis. Spokespeople for Manara and several trading firms declined to comment, and the talks are at an early stage with no guarantee of an agreement.

A joint venture approach is being discussed because it could help Manara better monetize the copper and nickel supply tied to the Vale arrangement, while also potentially securing more raw materials for Saudi Arabia and Maaden. The list of firms Manara is talking with has included Javelin Global Commodities, Ocean Partners Holdings and Trafigura Group, according to people familiar with the matter. The logic is straightforward: when an investor also becomes a more capable seller and logistics coordinator, it can potentially extract more value from offtake flows that already exist.

Structural changes are also on the table. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has planned to spin off Manara Minerals, according to comments from Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Bandar Al-Khorayef. He said the move would sharpen Manara’s focus and “change the culture of the company from being only an investment vehicle to having more technical capability,” adding that “PIF is a large investor, but they don’t have mining expertise.” No timeframe was given, but discussions over new shareholders are ongoing, and they could include Saudi or foreign investors.

The figures show why the Manara Minerals Vale stake remains central to the story. It anchors the only completed overseas deal, ties directly to copper and nickel offtake, and sits within a national narrative where Saudi Arabia believes it has about $2.5 trillion in untapped mineral resources. Yet the period after the Vale transaction has been defined by tougher conditions for finding new assets at prices Manara likes. The result is a strategy that still includes equity options, but increasingly emphasizes partnerships that can translate supply into value through trading structures.