Will the Reko Diq Project Change Pakistan's Fate

ARY NEWS

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00:00What are you giving to my people in Balochistan because the biggest concern

00:04here is that you know people are going to come from abroad, they're going to

00:10take our assets and they're going to go away. What are my people get? So that's a

00:15very good question and and and that's the conversation that we had starting in

00:202019. How do we do something different? How do we really create something unique

00:28in the mining world and Rekordec represents that. There is no other

00:33partnership around the world that that is anywhere close to the arrangements

00:41with Rekordec. First of all the Balochistan people get 25% owned by their

00:48government in Balochistan and they also get taxes and royalties out of that and

00:55they don't have to pay for it because it's being funded. 10 of that 25 is

01:02funded by all the shareholders and the other 15 by the federal government of

01:08Pakistan. So it's a real and and the previous arrangements in Rekordec was

01:14very much less than that and then Pakistan has 25% so that's 50-50 and I've

01:22always said a true partnership is 50-50 and so this is something we're going to

01:29do together and we are also attracting funding because the the state-owned

01:38enterprises that represent the federal government are funding that component

01:44and barracks funding the other but we not funding at all. We are bringing in

01:49investors, debt investors to gear that investment so this is a global effort

01:58right that ends up creating and you heard the Chief Minister today he's

02:05already receiving benefits from this investment and what's he doing he's

02:12giving it back into the community. Is Rekordec inflated in our minds that it's

02:19too big or is it just the beginning and it is actually much bigger than what it

02:23is right now? So I always say to my team it's a starter mine it's just gonna get

02:29bigger and if we if we are successful which I have absolute confidence we will

02:35be this is a new frontier for mining this is like Chile 80 years ago. Chile

02:43started just like this remember it was a complex geopolitical position a country

02:4980 years ago now it's the biggest producer of copper in the world and so

02:55this is an opportunity if we get this right of course Barrick and partnership

03:00with some of the Pakistan industry is already looking at expanding as

03:09footprints adjacent to Rekordec and we are also looking at to bring Saudi

03:15Arabia in to partner us in another project so we are already establishing a

03:20bigger frontier and then we will keep inviting the big players the big copper

03:27players around the world and as you know the Chinese are already operating here

03:33so there's a start and if we continue to demonstrate this and I always say the

03:39Tethian metalliferous belt is as prospective as the Andean range in South

03:47America this is the new Andean copper belt. Which obviously means that it is a

03:53sort of a game-changer for Pakistan but we hear this word so often that this is

03:59now sort of a word that feels pretty normal. Yes I understand that. I would

04:04actually like to know what does this mean for Pakistan because I heard at one

04:09point in time that this could be the oil of Saudi this this could be equivalent

04:14to that for Pakistan is that true? Well I think the the thing I celebrate is when

04:20you hire the chief minister you hire the various officials appreciate that we

04:27need to put this back into the community that's the whole objective

04:30this is these are stakeholders in this project and so if we if we're going to

04:38make a real difference in this part of the world it's a long voyage and we've

04:43got to start now so normally mining companies want their investment back

04:49before they share it. What we've done in this project is started sharing before

04:55we generate the revenue because it's an investment this is a new modern world

05:01and we need to make sure that we respect the owners of this endowment and the

05:09owners of this endowment are the people of Pakistan and specifically the

05:14Balochistan people of Pakistan and the people of Balochistan have a question a

05:20very important question and as a journalist it's my responsibility to

05:23bring it to you so that I can give them the answer through the lens of the

05:27camera. They want to see bricks of gold coming out of Rekordik but they see sand

05:35which is obviously concentrate coming out of it. Why do we see sand coming out

05:42of it and not bricks of gold? So that's a good question and and it's worth it it's

05:50all about communication and sharing so 80 to 85 percent of all value created in

05:57a mine is done through mining. 15 percent is added value downstream that's for

06:08copper for gold 100 percent of the value is created at the mine head because when

06:16we sell the gold we get the full value of gold the people that refine it it's a

06:23very high cost low return activity they they trade that gold into the market

06:31that's how they make their money and so and and and if we if we want to create

06:38further value for the copper in other words add value downstream a couple of

06:43things have to happen first of all you need low-cost power and it's currently

06:50the technology and the treatment costs if you ship it to some of the new

06:56modern smelters around the world they can do it better than us here and

07:02secondly to make a return on on downstream added value you need size so

07:11as we grow our production in this region we will ultimately move towards

07:17our own smelting. So it's not a no-go region or no-go zone? Definitely not. It is in the

07:22papers in future. Another question you said because of the high cost of power

07:27Rajasthan has ample solar energy and the solar power is the most economical form

07:34of power why go through the process and hassle of sending all of this

07:40concentrate to another country which includes the shipping cost the fuel cost

07:44obviously it's heavy has a lot of volume as well why not put solar power here and

07:51start the smelting process by bringing down the cost of energy? So if you

07:57look at our plans for Rekordec we're starting with a combination of solar and

08:03heavy fuel because as you know the Sun doesn't shine all 24-7 but as battery

08:10technology improves and Barrick has very big solar power stations around the

08:17world so we're going to start with 180 megawatts of heavy fuel and 150 megawatts

08:23of solar. We've already started doing the research on wind in Balochistan

08:29right here you've got these wind tunnels and we'll continue to research

08:34that. We've also finished a study on how we could connect to the grid it's a 500

08:41kilometer connection and then it's about you have to get redundancy so you've

08:47got to have a ring line to be able to support a big project like this. So during

08:53that second phase of Rekordec development because it's a long

09:00development we start production in 28 we bring the second phase in in 2033-2034

09:08and so we're already studying that. The big challenge within with the current

09:15Pakistan grid is its reliability so we need to enhance that reliability but the

09:22good thing a large percentage of renewable so to your point we should be

09:29able to access cleaner lower cost power.

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