Dr Samar Mubarakmand on Friday said Reko-Diq, in Balochistan, has 730 million tons resources, of which 0.6 percent copper and 0.4g/t gold. Giving a briefing to National Assembly standing committee on inter provincial co-ordination, he further said that the estimated global resources are more than three billion tons of mineralised material, including 18 million tons of copper and 35 million ounces of gold.
"A small part of Reko Diq gold and copper mines (EL-5) have deposits worth $270 billion and there are numerous other bigger deposits in the same belt which could give many more billions to the country", Dr Samar added. He informed the committee, which met here with Mir Ahmedan Khan Bugti in the chair, that annual operating cost is Rs 2,045 million and annual profit for processing 5,000 ton per day in a single shift of work is Rs 6,079 million.
If three shifts work per day, Dr Samar added, the annual profit would be Rs 18,238 million. He said that other associated metals including lead, zinc, silver, cobalt, iron and sulfur were considered as additional by-products, sufficient enough to contribute in the pay back for the cash flow of the operating mine.
Dr Samar said that the value of the small area of EL-5 in Reko Diq was over $260 billion. He explained that the figures being given by the foreign exploration company were only limited to the EL-5 licence for which a feasibility study has also been submitted by the company but he maintained that much larger parts of the same gold and copper belt have not yet been evaluated and these could yield unlimited mineral resources. "You can keep on taking out gold and copper and it will never end," he said.
The director-general (minerals), ministry for petroleum and natural resources briefed the committee about Saindak Copper Gold project. He informed that total resources are 412 million tons of ore, consisting of three ore bodies, East, North and South.
The total income of federal and provincial government of Balochistan from this project is $44.866 million and profit share of Chinese company is about $165 million. After the briefing, the members appreciated the work of Dr Samar Mubarakmand on these projects and asked that the committee fully support these projects. The meeting was attended by MNAs Haji Rozud-Din, Dr Imtiaz Sultan Bukhari, Gul Muhammad Khan Jakhrani, Qudsia Arshad, Surriya Asghar, Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi, Dr Muhammad Ayub Sheikh, Dr Donya Aziz and Dr Nadeem Ehsan.
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