Balochistan government poised to take over Reko Dik & Dudar Lead & Zinc projects

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: The Government of Balochistan is poised to take over the Reko Dik Copper and Gold Project and Dudar Lead and Zinc Project and operate it on commercial basis.

For this, the Balochistan Government had acquired the services of Dr Samar Mubarak Mand, an eminent nuclear scientist and presently Member Science and Technology, Planning Commission of Pakistan, to lead the Board of Governors for the Reko Dik Copper and Gold Project.

The other members of the Board of Governors are: Additional Chief Secretary, Planning and Development, Secretary Finance, Secretary, Industries, Secretary Mines and Mineral Development, President of the Balochistan Mine Owners Association and the Managing Director of the Reko Dik Project will be member/Secretary.

The Balochistan Government had issued an official notification naming the members of the Board of Governor to operate the Reko Dik Project. Secretary Mines and Mineral Development, Mir Wahid Bakhsh Baloch, had issued the notification and he reportedly played a key role in preparing the PC-I of the project for approval of the Federal Government.

The Notification had already been notified to all concerned officials and department, including one for the Director Public Relations for wider publicity.

The Chief Minister, Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani, told newsmen here on arrival from Lahore that the Provincial Government had prepared the PC-I of the Reko Dik Project indicating an early take over of the Project by the Balochistan Government.

According to another Notification, the Government of Balochistan had handed over the affairs of Reko Dik Copper and Gold Project and the Dudar Lead and Zinc Project to the Mines and Mineral Development Department. Earlier, the Balochistan Development Authority (BDA) was looking after the Reko Dik Project for the past 16 years. Its performance was dismal much below the satisfaction of the higher officials in the present Government head by Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani.

BDA was a complete failure and it depended much more on public relation exercise than concrete work on the ground. The BDA took former Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammad Yusuf to Chile, Canada and the United States for sight seeing or for a pleasure trip on the pretext of visiting the copper and gold mines in Chile and elsewhere.

The Government of Balochistan had appointed BDA as the Government agency to look after the Reko Dik Affairs in 1990s. A former Chief Minister of Balochistan was present at a function when an agreement was signed by the BDA and BHP of Australia granting an exploration licence to the BHP.

BHP had sold all its interests to two firms—one from Chile for Copper and another from Canada for Gold.

From the very outset, the local media had been opposing the important role assigned to BDA as it lacked trained and qualified manpower and also not being a regular Provincial Government Department.

Meanwhile, the Secretary Mines and Mineral Development had appointed Dr Saeed Sajidi as the focal person for Reko Dik and Dudar Affairs asking the BDA to hand over all the files and details to the focal person without any delay.

According to initial estimates, there is more than four billion tons of copper and sizeable quantity of precious gold worth over 100 billion US dollars.