ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Ivanhoe Mines, the Canadian copper miner founded by Robert Friedland, has signed an agreement with Mari Energies to explore for copper and gold in Balochistan’s Chagai district, its first move into South Asia.
The memorandum of understanding was signed on Thursday on the sidelines of the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum in Islamabad, with Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik attending the ceremony. Mari Minerals, the mining arm of Mari Energies, is the Pakistani partner.
The two companies will carry out exploration to assess the mineral potential of the area and look for ways to develop its copper and gold resources. No financial terms were made public.
An office in Pakistan
Friedland, Ivanhoe’s founder and executive co-chairman, said the company was excited to be in Pakistan and was in the early stages of setting up a local office. He said Ivanhoe would sign another memorandum of understanding on Friday, but did not say with whom.
Ivanhoe, based in Vancouver, is best known for the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the world’s largest copper mines. Until now its big projects have been in southern Africa.
Mari Energies is one of Pakistan’s largest gas producers and is listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Its mining unit already holds several exploration projects in the country, including for copper and gold.
Chagai’s copper belt
Chagai sits on the Tethyan belt, a band of copper and gold deposits that runs from Europe through Iran into Pakistan. The district is home to the Reko Diq project run by Barrick, one of the largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits in the world, and to the Saindak mine.
Speaking at the forum, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said Reko Diq was designed as an open-pit mine that would first process 45 million tonnes of ore a year, rising to 90 million tonnes after its second phase, with a life of 37 years that could stretch to 80. He urged investors to process and refine minerals in Pakistan rather than export them raw.
On the same day, Malik met executives from Barrick, the engineering group Weir, the trader Trafigura, and Turkey’s Çalık Holding, according to his ministry. Trafigura said it was interested in a zinc and barite project, and Weir said it wanted a bigger role in Pakistan’s mining sector beyond Reko Diq.
The two-day forum opened on Wednesday with Pakistan pitching what officials describe as $8 trillion in mineral reserves to foreign investors. Read more on the forum’s opening and the provinces’ offer to investors.
