Prime Minister Imran Khan has said Pakistan hopes to have large investments into mining its gold reserves in southwestern province of Balochistan, which is said to hold one of the largest mineral deposits in the world.
“During my visit to the America, the chairman of a company previously working on Reko Diq project told me that Pakistan has one of the largest and finest quality gold reserves in the world,” Khan said.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of China-Hubco Power Plant, the prime minister noted that mining companies didn’t come to Pakistan only because of corruption, and now investors want to do business in the country.
“I have been saying for the last 22 years that corruption is the biggest issue of Pakistan,” the prime minister stressed.
Reko Diq is a copper and gold mine in Chagai district of Balochistan province with a value up to $500bn. It holds about 5.9 billion tonnes of ore, making it the world’s fifth largest deposit of gold and copper.
Reko Diq, which means sandy peak in Baluchi language, is also the name of an ancient volcano. Reko Diq #Mine is famous because of its vast Gold and Copper Reserves and its believed to have the world 5th largest gold deposit. #BeautifulPakistan 🇵🇰@PakistanNature @Pakistaninpics pic.twitter.com/fxBp8EPJAe
— Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) July 11, 2018
The project has been subject to controversies and international litigation since the year 2001. Recently, Pakistan was fined an amount of Rs 950 bn (US $ 6 billion) fine by The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of World Bank on the lawsuit filed by the company Tethyan.
The company had completed the feasibility study in respect of the project and submitted this to the Government of Balochistan in August 2010.
On 15 February 2011, Tethyan submitted an application to the Government of Balochistan in accordance with the Balochistan Mineral Rules for a mining lease. On 15 November 2011, Tethyan was notified by the Government of Balochistan that the Government had rejected its application for a mining lease.
Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s verdict in the Reko Diq case in January 2013 was the first in a series of events that later led to the massive award against Pakistan.
As per reports, the deposit at Reko Diq is a large low-grade copper porphyry, with total mineral resources of 5.9 billion tons of ore with an average copper grade of 0.41% and gold grade of 0.22 g/ton. From this, the economically mineable portion of the deposit has been calculated at 2.2 billion tons, with an average copper grade of 0.53% and gold grade of 0.30 g/ton, with an annual production estimated at 200,000 tons of copper and 250,000 ounces of gold contained in 600,000 tons of concentrate.
“The Balochistan government is trying to persuade large Pakistani investors to form a consortium to invest their money in the development of Reko Diq copper and gold mining project,” Balochistan’s Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan recently said.
“Our first priority is to convince Pakistani companies to invest in this project because neither the provincial nor the federal government has the finances for developing this resource that will prove a game changer for both Balochistan and the entire country,” he told media men.
The development of the project (for commercial production) requires an initial investment of $3-4 billion, which is in addition to the $6bn awarded by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in July against Pakistan for terminating agreement with the Tethyan Copper Company (TCC).
