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Trafigura announced on Wednesday January 14 that it had signed a “critical metals insurance policy” with the Saudi Export-Import Bank (Saudi EXIM) at the Future Minerals Forum 2026 in Riyadh.
The policy will support multi-year prepayment transactions with unspecified “mining companies worldwide,” with an expected value of up to $800 million (3 billion riyals).
The move comes after Trafigura secured $200 million in anode offtake financing with Ivanhoe Mines in June 2025, alongside $42 million in copper concentrate prepayment deals with AIC Mines and Silver X.
The commodity trading giant announced that this “first-of-its-kind” agreement will see Saudi EXIM provide credit insurance for prepayment facilities provided by Trafigura to mining companies, with the copper mining sector to be the first covered by the policy.
Trafigura chief executive Richard Holtum argued during LME Week 2025 that mining alone is insufficient without the midstream capacity needed to turn raw materials into usable metals — a point he raised during a fireside chat at the London Metal Exchange Seminar in October 2025.
Saudi’s EXIM role is to support non-oil exports through export financing, guarantees and export credit insurance to help boost their competitiveness in international markets, according to the company.
“We are pleased to have signed this landmark agreement,” said Gonzalo De Olazaval, global head of metals and minerals at Trafigura in a press release.
“Its innovative financing structure — with our first deal already completed — demonstrates how export credit agencies and commodity trading companies can work together to support the development of critical metals and minerals supply chains,” De Olazaval said.
“This agreement further enables mining value chains and strengthens the [Saudi Arabia’s] presence in critical minerals markets, in line with the objectives and programs of Vision 2030,” said Saad AlKhalb, chief executive officer of Saudi EXIM.
Vision 2030 refers to Saudi Arabia’s economic and social roadmap launched in 2016 to diversify its economy away from oil dependence.
“This reality demands more flexible financing instruments and sounder capabilities to manage cross-border risks — a role fulfilled by Saudi Exim through its financing, insurance and supply chain financing solutions,” AlKhalb said.
The deal extends Trafigura’s existing relationship with Saudi EXIM, following the signing of a $500 million credit facility in 2023, which was subsequently increased to $700 million in 2025.
Under its Saudi Vision 2030 blueprint, Saudi Arabia is shifting away from oil dependence through major investments, regulatory reform and greater focus on critical minerals.
As Holtum noted at LME Week: “The Chinese were very aware of this 20-25 years ago — they identified minerals and metals as critical national security infrastructure and built out domestic smelting capacity to support their growth.”
Saudi Arabian mining exploration spending continues to grow, having reached a record 1.05 billion riyals ($279.8 million) in 2024, fueled by a surge in private sector investment, according to data released by its Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM) in October.
Saudi Arabia’s copper ambitions play an important part in the country’s efforts to diversify away from oil. It is second to Turkey as the biggest exporter of copper ores and concentrates in the Middle East — according to International Copper Study Group (ICSG) data, it exported 75,700 tonnes of ores and concentrates in 2024.
On January 14, Saudi Arabia’s state National Industrial Development Center (NIDC) announced plans to build a new copper rod facility to be completed in 2027. The facility will have a capacity of 130,000 tonnes per year of copper rod.
Global mining giant Glencore announced in March 2024 that it aims to build Saudi Arabia’s first copper smelter, with a planned capacity of 400,000 tpy. The country has no smelter production in primary and secondary blister and anode, according to the latest ICSG data.
“COVID and the European gas crisis showed governments how vulnerable complex supply chains really are — that’s when the West started waking up to the mine to metal strategy,” Holtum said.
The bullish drivers of copper remain strongly intact. The copper price rally extended into January 2026, for the first time exceeding both $12,000 and $13,000 per tonne.
“AI gets all the airtime, but air conditioning alone used three times more copper this year than data centers,” Holtum said.
This mirrors IEA projections showing Middle East cooling demand rising by 10% by 2035, already consuming a quarter of electricity use and nearly half of peak summer load.
“Ninety percent of copper demand over the next decade will come from traditional infrastructure, construction and urbanization — not AI or defense,” Holtum said.
Trafigura said it would not share additional information beyond the details published in its press release.