Tethyan Copper Company files for international arbitration

Tethyan Copper Company files for international arbitration

Tim Livesey, CEO Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) has revealed that in order to protect its legal right the company has filed an international arbitration for the licence of Reko Diq project.

On Tuesday, November 29, Livesey issued a statement that read, “We are disappointed that we have not yet been given the opportunity to resolve this by negotiation. Our feasibility study and mining lease application submission are
in accordance with the Balochistan Mineral Rules 2002.”

TCC were earlier denied mining license by the Balochistan Mining Committee who stated that the reports submitted by the company were incomplete. On Thursday, November 18, 2011 Amanullah Kanrani, Advocate General of Balochistan,
submitted a regional government’s report, regarding the prevailing topic, to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.

The report read that TTC failed to provide complete feasibility report to Balochistan Mining Committee, whose sole purpose was to examine the practicability of the Reko Diq project.

Livesey in response to the committee had said, “We firmly believe that our activities to date have been fully in line with the Balochistan Mineral Rules (2002) and we will welcome the opportunity to discuss this with the provincial
regulator and the government.”

TCC argued that the committee’s refusal to grant the licence to them is contrary to the Chagai Hills Exploration Joint Venture Agreement and Pakistani law.

TTC is a joint venture between Antofagasta and Barrick Gold. Antofagasta is a Chilean company that produces copper while Barrick’s is from Canadian background.

Tethyan Copper Company had acquired the services of SNC-Lavalin for the study. It cost the company somewhere around $220 million. The study was carried on for about four years during which 5,000 samples from an area spread over
13,000 kilometres were taken into consideration.

TCC had even asked for more time to answer all the concerns of Balochistan government over.

Reko Diq project will be carried out in Chagai, a district of Balochistan that has the fourth largest copper reserves in the world. According to an estimate, the mining project has a life 56 years and can produce 200,000 tons of
copper and 250,000 ounces of gold on annual basis.

Feasibility report to the provincial government was submitted by TCC in August 2010 and the company applied for a mining licence in February 2011.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=5091

Posted by Wajahat Javed on Nov 29 2011. Filed under Business, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry