Balochistan’s “top mining official”, (province’s secretary for mines ) Saleh Mohammad Baloch, said Balochistan wants Chinese companies to kick-start a boom in its mining industry by including the sector into Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative.
He said the province wanted the projects to be set up close to the source of raw materials and near the CPEC roads that would connect western China with Gwadar. A profit-sharing formula will also be negotiated, he added.
He cited the Saindak copper and gold mine, operated by a subsidiary of state-run China Metallurgical Group Corporation, as an example to follow.
Balochistan provincial government is seeking formal expressions of interest by international companies for an exploration block in the Tethyan belt, which boasts big copper and gold deposits. The H4 block has estimated deposits of 148 million tonnes.
The H4 block is nearby the much richer Tethyan belt blocks mired in a legal dispute in international courts between Pakistan and Tethyan Copper Company, which is owned by Barrick Gold and Antofagasta.
Barrick Gold estimates a $3bn investment would be needed for the mine. Mr Baloch said he could not comment on the Reko Diq case because of legal cases.
However the common public of Baluchistan strongly protested any kind of move to exploit its resources in any kind of collaboration with CPEC.
What is the issue of Reko Diq?
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.
But the huge project has ground to a halt over a dispute between the provincial government and the miners.
Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) – a joint venture of Barrick Gold of Canada and Antofagasta of Chile – had been awarded a licence for exploration in the Reko Diq area in 2006. In 2011, TCC’s application for a mining lease for the project was rejected by the Balochistan government of then-chief minister Aslam Raisani, which decided to run the project on its own.
TCC took the case to the international arbitration court claiming damages because it had invested more than $500 million in exploration and feasibility studies.
Saindak Copper-Gold Mine
Saindak Copper-Gold Mine is located near Saindak town in Chagai District of Balochistan, Pakistan. The discovery of copper deposits at Saindak was made in the 1970s in collaboration with a Chinese engineering firm. The Saindak Copper-Gold Project was set up by Saindak Metals Ltd, a company fully owned by the Government of Pakistan, by the end of 1995 at a cost of PKR 13.5 billion.
Pakistan and China signed a formal contract worth $350 million for development of Saindak Copper-Gold mine. The mine was leased for a 10-year period to Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd. (MCC), a subsidiary of the China Metallurgical Group Corporation.