Local consortium in Pakistan proposes to develop large copper and gold deposits

After the court ruled that Chile's Antofagasta (Antofagasta) and Canada's Barrick Gold (Barrick Gold) formed a local consortium, the local consortium proposed to develop a large copper and gold mine in southwestern Pakistan.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan filed a lawsuit in 2013 over the manner in which the contract was awarded, preventing the joint venture Tethyan Copper from developing one of the world's largest untapped copper and gold mines in Reko Diq ().

After Tethyan Copper filed the lawsuit, the global arbitration body ordered the Pakistani government to pay $5.8 billion in damages.

(National Resources Private Limited), a local consortium, said in a statement on Sunday that it had submitted proposals for the development of (Reko Diq) and another important copper and gold mine in Balochistan province.

National Resources Pte Ltd said the consortium had proposed to (the government) the development of Tangier (Tanjeel) as a start-up project and then to develop large reserves in the Rekodik area.

The provincial government of Balochistan said it was studying the proposal, but its financial aspects had not been disclosed.

Local consortia include Arif Habib Equity (Private) Co., Ltd., Mari Oil Co., Ltd., Liberty Mills, Reliance Commodities (Private) Co., Ltd. (Fatima Group), YB Pakistan Co., Ltd.) and Southwest Mining (Private) Limited.

After the World Bank's International Center for the settlement of Investment disputes ((ICSID)) ordered Pakistan to pay $5.84 billion in compensation to Tethyan Copper in 2019, the federal government said it was negotiating a solution with Tethyan Copper. Before the project was blocked, the joint venture had invested more than $220 million in the project.

Since then, work in the mine has been stagnant.