ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s top businessmen have offered to take over a disputedcopper and gold deposit that was once explored by Barrick Gold Corp andAntofagasta Plc.
Citing sources, *Bloomberg *reported that officials at the provincialBalochistan government are said to have met with a consortium of fourbusiness groups including tycoons Arif Habib and Muhammad Ali Tabba who arewilling to invest about $1 billion of their own cash in the project, thepeople said.
The report stated that the consortium is willing to go through a biddingprocess to take over the project.
Back in July a World Bank arbitration court ordered the Pakistanigovernment to pay damages of $5.8 billion to Tethyan Copper, a jointventure between Chile’s Antofagasta Plc and Canada’s Barrick Gold afterPakistan refused to grant them the mining lease needed to keep operating.
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Tethyan Copper discovered vast mineral wealth more than a decade ago inReko Diq, at the foot of an extinct volcano near Pakistan’s frontier withIran and Afghanistan. The deposit was set to rank among the world’s biggestuntapped copper and gold mines.
The business groups that showed interest in the mining project are YunusBrothers Group that owns Lucky Cement Ltd, Arif Habib Group, Fatima Groupand the owners of Liberty Power Tech Ltd, the people said.
