In Pakistan the Supreme Court proposed on Tuesday that the parties involved in the Reko Diq copper and gold mining project should handle the re-release of the mining lease with mutual understanding and inform the court about it by Wednesday.
The court said that the project was not a joint venture and the credibility of the Reko Diq project could not be established.
A three member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Mohammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani heard the case. The Chief Justice said that the verdict of the Balochistan High Court was a hurdle in the transparency of the lease. Adding that the Baloch people and the government has the basic right to the resources he said that it would be better if the Balochistan government takes a final decision about the project.
The Tethyan Copper Company which is a consortium of Canadian and Chilean interests had acquired the exploration policy but it had expired in February. Khalid Anwar, counsel for the TCC, told the court that the company had already invested $220 million on digging, testing and analysis. He argued that the mining lease might be awarded to his client as they had already been working on it.
Renewal of the policy was the responsibility of the Balochistan government as per the Chief Justice. He said that these mines are the resources of the people and the elected representatives have the right to take a decision about the mining lease.