SC urged to rule that smelters and refineries must be set up in Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has been requested to rule that smelters and refineries must be set up in Balochistan and only finished goods’ export be allowed.

A Pakistani metallurgist, Abbas Akberali, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan asking that being a citizen of Pakistan he has the right to know about the details of the Reko Diq agreement.

He has pleaded the Supreme Court of Pakistan to confirm that the agreement contains clause that smelters and refineries must be set up in Baluchistan and only finished goods will be exported out of Balochistan.

He has pleaded to the Chief Justice that to protect the interest of Balochistan in particular and the economic interests of Pakistan in general it is necessary to allow only finished goods to get out of our country, produced from the extremely precious mineral deposits not only in Baluchistan but all over Pakistan, including the Northern Areas of the country.

He also urged the CJ that the Reko Diq agreement must contain a clause that finished goods produced out of mining beneficiation process should only be exported. Also, the smelters and refineries must be set up in Balochistan and only finished products like copper, gold, platinum, red earths, etc, be exported.

This is vital for the economy of Balochistan and also for the economy of Pakistan. The mineral deposits of Balochistan are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, if not of trillions, of extremely precious and semi-precious metals.

The original Reko Diq agreement that was signed in 1993 is at standstill since 2011 because of rejection of mining lease application in November 2011 by the Balochistan government on the grounds that the smelting and refining should be done in Pakistan as opposed to the original agreement where smelting and refining was proposed to be done outside Pakistan.

Earlier this year with the out-of-court settlement of a long-standing dispute, the reconstitution and restart of the project was announced by the ex-finance minister Miftah Ismail and Barrick Gold Corporation’s president and chief executive Mark Bristow.

According to new agreement the undeveloped copper-gold deposits will be owned 50% by Barrick, 25% by Balochistan province and 25% by major Pakistani state-owned enterprises (SOEs). As per the agreement the Balochistan province will get 25% share in the project and also 5% royalty.

As the agreement was kept confidential and the details of the agreement are still not available and several aspects of Reko Diq deal with Barrick Gold are still concealed and no one is aware of the details of the agreement.

So, it is still unclear whether Barrick Gold will set up a refinery in Pakistan or take the precious metals out of the country like the Chinese operator did in Saindak project. Also, when the process of extracting gold and selling of refined ore will also be outside the country then how it would be known that how much ore was extracted and how much was sold. There must be a cap on excavation, especially if the company is allowed to export the minerals in raw form.

The Reko Diq mining deal remained disputed, fishy and a hard debate since its inception and the original Reko Diq Agreement has been kept confidential. No one either politician, bureaucrat or general people of Pakistan have knowledge about this agreement of great importance. Whereas, every Pakistani citizen has the right to know the details of the deal signed as it has not been made public so far by the government.

The fact is the Reko Diq natural resource reserves of Balochistan are of great importance and it has the potential to change the destiny of people of Balochistan if it is handled properly. It would not be wrong to say that the future of Balochistan as well as Pakistan is associated with this project. However, the agreements around it have been manipulated since the very beginning.

Therefore, the public now needs to know all the details around the new variations of this agreement. The government must take the Reko Diq issue seriously and get benefit of world’s one of the largest deposits of gold, copper and other precious minerals.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022