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Miners bank $3bn on Baloch project
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
QUETTA, Pakistan - Canada's Barrick Gold and Chile's Antofagasta plan to invest up to US$3 billion in a copper and gold mine at Reko Diq in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan. This will be the single-largest foreign investment in Pakistan in the fiscal year that started on July 1 and is larger than the $3.32 billion of total foreign direct investment for the first 11 months of the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Critics say that the government in Islamabad blundered by selling what may be the world's biggest untapped copper and gold deposits, worth over $100 billion, to foreign mining firms at a throwaway price, to the disservice of the people of the country's most backward province and economy.
Tethyan Copper, a joint venture between Barrick Gold and Antofagasta, one of the world's largest copper miners, has been granted an exploration license for the Reko Diq site. Tethyan, formerly a subsidiary of Australia's Mincor Resources, has a 75% interest, and the Balochistan government holds 25%.
"We think the investment is probably going to be between $2.5 billion and $3 billion," Reuters quoted Cassie Boggs, chief executive of Tethyan Copper, as saying on Tuesday when the investment was announced. "Here in Pakistan, all the current events make security a concern but we actually believe security is manageable."
Boggs said the company would continue to weigh the benefits against the risks but felt the project had a lot of potential for its investors and for Pakistan. Ore reserves at the site are estimated at 4 billion tonnes, of which 0.5% is expected to be copper, with 0.29 gram of gold per tonne of ore, according to Boggs.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southea.../KG03Ae01.html
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
QUETTA, Pakistan - Canada's Barrick Gold and Chile's Antofagasta plan to invest up to US$3 billion in a copper and gold mine at Reko Diq in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan. This will be the single-largest foreign investment in Pakistan in the fiscal year that started on July 1 and is larger than the $3.32 billion of total foreign direct investment for the first 11 months of the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Critics say that the government in Islamabad blundered by selling what may be the world's biggest untapped copper and gold deposits, worth over $100 billion, to foreign mining firms at a throwaway price, to the disservice of the people of the country's most backward province and economy.
Tethyan Copper, a joint venture between Barrick Gold and Antofagasta, one of the world's largest copper miners, has been granted an exploration license for the Reko Diq site. Tethyan, formerly a subsidiary of Australia's Mincor Resources, has a 75% interest, and the Balochistan government holds 25%.
"We think the investment is probably going to be between $2.5 billion and $3 billion," Reuters quoted Cassie Boggs, chief executive of Tethyan Copper, as saying on Tuesday when the investment was announced. "Here in Pakistan, all the current events make security a concern but we actually believe security is manageable."
Boggs said the company would continue to weigh the benefits against the risks but felt the project had a lot of potential for its investors and for Pakistan. Ore reserves at the site are estimated at 4 billion tonnes, of which 0.5% is expected to be copper, with 0.29 gram of gold per tonne of ore, according to Boggs.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southea.../KG03Ae01.html
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