A $4 billion blow to Pakistan from the international front
Shares
ISLAMABAD - A $4 billion blow to Pakistan from the international front by the Australian copper company over infamous Rekodiq case.
It asked a D.C. federal court Friday to confirm a damages award of more than $4 billion issued against Pakistan in a dispute over the denial of a mining lease in the country.
Tethyan Copper Company, which is jointly owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold Corporation and Chile’s Antofagasta PLC, said the $4.09 billion award was issued by an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes tribunal in July, following proceedings stemming from an alleged breach of the Australia-Pakistan bilateral investment treaty.
The Australia-incorporated TCC said that it entered into a joint venture agreement with the government of Pakistan’s Balochistan province to explore for copper and gold deposits with the expectation of being granted a mining lease.
But in 2011, the provincial government denied the application for a lease to the Reko Diq mine, located in a remote area of the province. A request for arbitration was filed by TCC that same year.
The ICSID tribunal previously reached a decision on jurisdiction and liability in 2017, but did not rule on the amount of compensation owed by Pakistan until July 12. In the liability decision, the tribunal found that Pakistan had breached its treaty obligations by not giving “fair and equitable treatment to TCC’s investments” and “effectively expropriating the value of TCC’s investment,” among other violations, according to the petition.
