Canada, Saudi sign mining and infrastructure deals

Canada wagering on Saudi rocks: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s official visit to Jeddah this week — the first by a Canadian PM in 26 years — produced 13 agreements and MoUs that the two governments valued at over USD 1 bn, signed at the Saudi-Canadian Investment Forum on Thursday.

The details: The agreements spanned health technology, mining, infrastructure, and defense. But the real weight sits in a narrow band — mining engineering and Riyadh infrastructure, the two places where Canadian capability meets Saudi’s most capital-hungry ambitions.

Two agreements do the heavy lifting: The Royal Commission for Riyadh City is set to sign two contracts worth USD 440 mn, while a partnership agreement between Maaden and Canada’s Hatch is valued at up to USD 700 mn. Carney’s office had not initially confirmed the total or even the currency — one account pegged it at “more than CAD 1 bn,” or roughly USD 710 mn.

The Hatch agreement is the one to watch. Hatch’s agreement makes it an engineering partner for Maaden’s planned USD 110 bn mining expansion. Maaden named Hatch its strategic delivery partner back in February.

Why it matters: The Kingdom is building mining into the third pillar of its economy, and executing this needs engineering and project-delivery depth Maaden doesn't have in-house at the scale a USD 110 bn program demands. Canada, squeezed by US tariffs and hunting for trade it doesn’t have to route through Washington, has exactly that depth to sell. Carney's visit doubled down on calls to diversify trade as US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs that are weighing on the Canadian economy.

The minerals prize: Saudi Arabia now puts its untapped mineral wealth at some USD 2.5 tn, and the Maaden-Hatch tie-up is not the first Canadian wager on that number. Ivanhoe Electric and Maaden run a 50-50 exploration joint venture across roughly 50k sq km of the underexplored Arabian Shield, hunting copper, gold, silver, and other electric metals, with Ivanhoe operating during exploration and Maaden taking over any viable deposit for development. The two extended that venture through July 2033 in an amended shareholders agreement filed on 7 July — two days before Carney landed.

BACKGROUND- The visit is as much repair as it is commerce. Ties ruptured in 2018 when Saudi Arabia expelled Canada’s ambassador and froze trade and investment after Ottawa criticized the kingdom’s human rights record. The two began restoring relations in 2023.

The forum points at the next wave: More than 30 Canadian companies across mining, energy, healthcare, education, and infrastructure worked the event, many circling the contracting pipeline around the 2034 World Cup and Riyadh’s Expo 2030 build-out. This also isn’t the first tranche — a Canadian trade delegation came away in January with roughly USD 600 mn in commercial partnership agreements. Two-way trade ran about USD 2.9 bn in 2025, with Saudi exports to Canada at USD 1.7 bn and imports from Canada at USD 1.2 bn.

What’s next: Carney’s office said the energy strand — LNG, hydrogen, and carbon capture — would be finalized next year. A delegation of Canadian pension funds will also return to the Kingdom “in a few months” to look for prospects, and Carney has invited Saudi investors to Toronto’s first investment summit in September.