
Robert Wilt
CEO: Ma'aden
‘It’s the creation of Manara Minerals, a joint venture between Ma’aden and its 65.4% shareholder, the Public Investment Fund, where the story gets really interesting’
SAUDI Arabia has targeted an annual contribution of $75bn from mining by 2035. It’s in this context that Robert Wilt stepped in as CEO of Ma’aden, the state’s mining vehicle. Ma’aden, which was formed by royal decree in 1997, already has a significant in-country portfolio consisting of gold, industrial minerals, aluminium and even some copper. But it’s the creation of Manara Minerals, a joint venture between Ma’aden and its 65.4% shareholder, the Public Investment Fund, where the story gets really interesting.
Manara is seeking a global footprint by investing up to 20% in a variety of metals, a strategy that has inevitably taken it to Africa. Shackled with Chinese debt or wary of the West, with its dark colonial legacies, places like Zambia are only too welcoming of Gulf capital. So it’s no surprise to find Manara has been connected with the purchase of a 15% to 20% stake in First Quantum Minerals’ Zambian mines, a potential investment of up to $2bn.
Manara has turned up in other interesting places. Last year, it replaced Russia’s Alrosa as a 41% shareholder in Angola’s Catoca, the world’s fourth largest diamond mine. It also bought a 24% stake in Polymetal from a group of investors as the company prepared to exit its Russian investors. A $1bn investment in Barrick Gold’s Reko Diq gold project in northern Pakistan has also been speculated – but had not materialised at the time of writing.
LIFE OF ROBERT
Wilt was previously CEO of Sofina Foods, one of Canada’s largest food-processing companies and before that was president of the Metals Group at Precision Castparts Corporation, managing two subsidiary aerospace and industrial companies. The majority of his career, however, was at Alcoa – the integrated aluminium producer – where he held various executive positions over 17 years. Wilt holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering Management from the US Military Academy at West Point, New York.