On Monday, Barrick Gold Corporation said it reached an important milestone to continue developing its Reko Diq copper-gold mine project in Pakistan, near the border with Iran and Afghanistan.
During a four-day visit to Pakistan, the company's president and CEO, Mark Bristow, held discussions with several stakeholders, and all documents required for the Reko Diq project to start were approved by Pakistan President Dr. Arif Alvi.
Once the transaction is completed, the project will be 50% owned by Barrick, 25% by Balochistan province, where the assets are located, and 25% by major Pakistani state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Barrick said, which was filed with the Supreme Court on Saturday.
The Reko Diq project, one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in the world, has been on hold since 2011 amid a dispute over the legality of its licensing process.
Barrick solved the long-running dispute earlier this year, reaching a preliminary out-of-court deal that cleared the path for a final agreement on how to run the mine and profit-sharing arrangements.
The project is now seeking financing partners, with a target of 50% debt to total capitalization.
It is expected to go into production as early as between 2027 and 2028 from Phase 1 at a cost of around $4 billion, with Phase 2 to follow in five years and a cost of roughly $2 billion.
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