Saudi Arabia's Ma'aden Forms JV to Invest in Mining Assets Abroad 

Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma'aden) said it agreed to form a joint venture with the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund to invest in mining assets globally. 
Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma'aden) said it agreed to form a joint venture with the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund to invest in mining assets globally. 
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Saudi Arabia's Ma'aden Forms JV to Invest in Mining Assets Abroad 

Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma'aden) said it agreed to form a joint venture with the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund to invest in mining assets globally. 
Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma'aden) said it agreed to form a joint venture with the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund to invest in mining assets globally. 

Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma'aden), the Gulf's largest miner, said on Wednesday it agreed to form a joint venture with the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund to invest in mining assets globally. 

Ma'aden will own 51% in the venture while the Public Investment Fund (PIF) will own 49%, the company said in a regulatory filing. 

Ma'aden said the new venture's strategy "will initially be to invest in the iron ore, copper, nickel, and lithium sectors as a non-operating partner taking minority equity positions." 

In a separate statement, Ma'aden also said it agreed to acquire a 9.9% stake in American minerals exploration and development firm Ivanhoe Electric (IE), as well as form a separate joint venture with Ivanhoe to explore and develop mining projects in Saudi Arabia. 

The joint venture will provide Ma’aden with access to proprietary technology for conducting geophysical surveys to detect the presence of sulphide minerals containing copper, nickel, gold and silver, Ma'aden said. 



Egypt's Headline Inflation Almost Halves in February

Birds fly at sunset in Cairo, Egypt, 09 March 2025.  EPA/MOHAMED HOSSAM
Birds fly at sunset in Cairo, Egypt, 09 March 2025. EPA/MOHAMED HOSSAM
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Egypt's Headline Inflation Almost Halves in February

Birds fly at sunset in Cairo, Egypt, 09 March 2025.  EPA/MOHAMED HOSSAM
Birds fly at sunset in Cairo, Egypt, 09 March 2025. EPA/MOHAMED HOSSAM

Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation plunged to 12.8% in February from 24.0% in January, decelerating even faster than analysts had expected, official data showed on Monday.
The drop was amplified by a statistical base effect, as exceptionally fast price increases of the past two years were no longer reflected in the statistics, analysts said.
Fifteen analysts polled by Reuters last week had expected inflation to cool to a median 14.5%.
Month on month, prices were 1.4% higher in February than in January.
Food and beverage prices were up by an annual 3.7% after rising 0.2% from January.
Core inflation also plunged more than expected to 10% on year-on-year basis in February, from 22.6% in January, the central bank said.
Inflation climbed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which prompted foreign investors to withdraw billions of dollars from Egyptian treasury markets. Headline inflation reached a record high of 38.0% in September 2023.
The price rises were fueled in part by rapid growth in the money supply. M2 money supply expanded by an all-time high of 32.1% in the year to end-January, central bank data showed.
Egypt devalued its currency a year ago, raised interest rates by 600 basis points and signed an $8 billion financial support package with the International Monetary Fund, helping to bring its finances under control.