Reko Diq is a small town in
Chagai DistrictCHAGHI/Chagai is the largest district of Pakistan and is located on the north west corner of Balochistan, Pakistan. It forms a triangular border with Afghanistan and Iran.Pakistan conducted a nuclear weapons test in 1998 at Ras Koh Hills Chagai District....
,
BalochistanBalochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by geographical area, constituting approximately 48% of the total area of Pakistan. At the 1998 census, Balochistan had a population of roughly 6.5 million. Its neighbouring regions are Iran to the west, Afghanistan and the North West Frontier...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, in a desert area 70 kilometres north west of
NaukundiNaukundi is a small town in Chagai District, Balochistan, Pakistan. There are several tribes in Naukundi, such as Sherzai, Notezai, Sanjrani, Mohammad Hassani and many others . Naukundi is the second biggest city in the Chagai District....
, near to the Iran-Afghan border.
Reko Diq, also the name of an ancient
volcano3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
, literally means
sandy peak, but this is something of a misnomer. It could be called Tangav Diq, or gold peak, because according to development expert Syed Fazl-e-Haider, below the sands lie some 12.3 million tons of copper and 20.9 million ounces of gold.
Reko Diq is a small town in
Chagai DistrictCHAGHI/Chagai is the largest district of Pakistan and is located on the north west corner of Balochistan, Pakistan. It forms a triangular border with Afghanistan and Iran.Pakistan conducted a nuclear weapons test in 1998 at Ras Koh Hills Chagai District....
,
BalochistanBalochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by geographical area, constituting approximately 48% of the total area of Pakistan. At the 1998 census, Balochistan had a population of roughly 6.5 million. Its neighbouring regions are Iran to the west, Afghanistan and the North West Frontier...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, in a desert area 70 kilometres north west of
NaukundiNaukundi is a small town in Chagai District, Balochistan, Pakistan. There are several tribes in Naukundi, such as Sherzai, Notezai, Sanjrani, Mohammad Hassani and many others . Naukundi is the second biggest city in the Chagai District....
, near to the Iran-Afghan border.
Reko Diq, also the name of an ancient
volcano3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
, literally means
sandy peak, but this is something of a misnomer. It could be called Tangav Diq, or gold peak, because according to development expert Syed Fazl-e-Haider, below the sands lie some 12.3 million tons of copper and 20.9 million ounces of gold. The copper-gold deposits at Reko Diq are believed to be even bigger than those of Sarcheshmeh in
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
and
EscondidaMinera Escondida, which means 'hidden' in Spanish, is a mining company that operates two open pit copper mines in the Atacama Desert, 170 km southeast of Antofagasta in northern Chile. It is currently the highest producing copper mine in the world...
in
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
.
Mine
Reko Diq is a giant copper and gold project in Chaghi. The main license (EL5) is held jointly by the
Government of BalochistanGovernment of Balochistan is based in the largest province of Pakistan in Quetta. The head of the province is the Governor, who is nominated by the President of Pakistan...
(25%),
Antofagasta MineralsAntofagasta plc is a Chilean business that operates in various sectors of the economy. It is one of the most important conglomerates of Chile with equity participation in Antofagasta Minerals, the railroad from Antofagasta to Bolivia, Aguas Antofagasta in Chile, Tethian in Australia and other...
(37.5%) and
Barrick GoldBarrick Gold Corporation is the largest pure gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and four regional business units located in Australia, Africa, North America and South America...
(37.5%).
BHP BillitonBHP Billiton is the world's largest mining company. It was created in 2001 by the merger of Australia's Broken Hill Proprietary Company and the UK's Billiton, which had a Dutch and South African background. The result is a dual-listed company with head offices in Melbourne and London...
, the world's largest mining company, started this project with the Australian firm Tethyan, entering into a joint venture with the Balochistan government and estimating an annual production of 200 to 500 million pounds of copper. A large number of
porphyryPorphyry is a variety of igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocrysts...
rocks are also known to exist.
The interests of the Australian company in Reko Diq and its neighbourhood were taken over by the
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
-based Barrick Gold Corporation and the Chilean Antofagasta Minerals. These companies were handed a very lucrative deal. The terms agreed upon show that there is more to the issue than meets the eye. Royalties were reduced from the initial four to two per cent. Terms for the provision of cost-free land for an airport and a 400 km Reko Diq-Gwadar road were accepted. An unjust clause is that a 25 per cent share will be paid to the Balochistan government, but only after it invests 25 per cent in the project.
Antofagasta's net assets at the end of 2007 grew to almost $5bn. In December 2005 it said: "Tethyan's principal assets are a 75 per cent interest in the highly prospective Chagai Hills
[sic] region of North West Pakistan known as Reko Diq, including the Tanjeel Mineral Resource. This mining district hosts significant copper-gold porphyry deposits as part of an extended copper-gold belt. Total indicated and inferred mineral resource estimates at these properties are 1,213 million tonnes with a copper grade of 0.58% and a gold grade of 0.28 grams per tonne. Estimates include probable reserves at the Tanjeel of 128.8 million tonnes with a copper grade of 0.7%."
According to Rob Maguire of the Dominion paper, Barrick is the foremost gold mining corporation in the world, with sales exceeding $2.6bn in 2005 and the largest reserves in the industry, at nearly 90 million ounces. Proponents of this project state that the mines will create thousands of high paying jobs and give a massive boost to the local economy. However the main fear many have is that revenues generated by this project will be squandered by corrupt officials. Therefore it is imperative that a mechanism be evolved to ensure that revenues generated actually lead to better infrastructure, education and health.
These corporations have outsourced services to Pakistani contractors such as ROCKMORE PVT LIMITED, Security 2000, Zia ul Haq & Company, and foreign companies like Capital Drilling & Zain Drilling Company. In April 2008, Zain Drilling Company terminated the services of forty drilling assistants and recruited novices and non-locals. The AZAT Foundation has tried to protect their rights, and on June 14, 2008 a well-attended demonstration was held outside the
Quetta) is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. It is known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan", due to its diversity in plant and animals wildlife. The city has been a major stronghold along the western frontier of the country. It is situated at an average...
Press Club.
There are many advocates of such mega projects who claim that the Baloch have benefited from their trickle-down effect. However, mining uses
sodium cyanideSodium cyanide is an inorganic compound with the formula NaCN. This highly toxic colourless salt is used mainly in gold mining but has other niche applications...
,
arsenicArsenic is the chemical element that has the symbol As, atomic number 33 and atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250. Arsenic is a notoriously poisonous metalloid with many allotropic forms, including a yellow and several black and grey forms...
and other chemicals which produce toxic by-products. According to Marcel Claude, vice-president of the international environmental group
OceanaOceana was founded in 2001 as an international marine conservation and advocacy organization and, in 2002, merged with the American Oceans Campaign, which was co-founded in 1987 by actor/activist Ted Danson...
, gold mining dumps 79 tonnes of waste for every 28 grams of gold and produces 96 per cent of the world's arsenic emissions.
External links