Balochistan: Foreign company plans to invest $3 billion in Reko Diq copper-gold mine

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI (July 01 2009): A foreign joint-venture company plans to invest up to $3 billion in Pakistan in a copper and gold mine, the venture's chief executive said on Tuesday. Tethyan Copper Co Ltd, a joint venture between Canada's Barrick Gold and Chile's Antofagasta Plc, one of the world's largest copper miners, has been granted an exploration license for the Reko Diq site in Balochistan.

The site's ore reserves, a mixture of minerals, are estimated at 4 billion tonnes, of which 0.5 percent is expected to be copper with 0.29 gram of gold per tonne of ore, Tethyan Chief Executive Cassie Boggs told Reuters in an interview.

"We think the investment is probably going to be between $2.5 and $3 billion," Boggs said by telephone. Tethyan is working on a feasibility study which is expected to be finished by early next year. The aim of the project is to exploit both copper and gold deposits, Boggs said.

Tethyan has a 75 percent interest while the government of Balochistan holds the remaining 25 percent. The project is expected to create up to 9,000 jobs in the construction phase, which will last for about three years, and then employ up to 3,000 people once the mine is operational. "Initially, we will need to probably bring in people from the outside with certain mining expertise," said Boggs. "But certainly, the plan is to train and develop the local workforce."

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