The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum has asked for an in Camera briefing regarding the Reko Diq and Saindak projects. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Mohsin Aziz. Mining of gold and copper in the province of Balochistan was discussed in detail during the meeting.
In case of Reko Diq In 2012, the Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) filed claims for international arbitration before International Court for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank after the provincial government turned down a leasing request from the company. The company is suing the provincial government for $11.431 billion which the government rejects for being ridiculous. From 1998 to 2006, the 75% foreign interest in the mining project was transferred from original firm to two other firms without there being any provision for it in the original contract.
The mining operations at Saindak Copper-Gold field were also discussed at length. The project was scheduled to be completed by 2030, but the field went empty by 2018. It was disclosed during the meeting that from the year 2003, to 2017, 68.5 million tons ore was mined from the site, and 0.223 million tons Blister copper was sold, while the company paid $ 80.448 million royalty to the provincial government.
The meeting was attended by Senators Mir Kabir Shahi, Lt. Gen(R) Salahuddin Tirmizi, Saleem Zia and Shamim Afridi, besides senior officials of the Petroleum Division, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, MOL Pakistan and Mari Petroleum.
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