#CryptoTariffDrop
Barrick Gold Corp. has provisionally approved plans to develop a vast copper-and-gold project in Pakistan, and expects to sign a $3 billion funding package for the mine in the third quarter.
Financing for the Reko Diq project is led by the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., with participation from state funding agencies in the US, Germany, Japan and elsewhere, Barrick Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said Tuesday in an interview in Islamabad.
The company said earlier that its partners — the governments of Pakistan and Balochistan — have provisionally signed off on the first phase of Reko Diq’s development, with major works set to start this year, ahead of targeted first production in 2028. The $6 billion plan is contingent on securing the finance package, Barrick said.
Barrick, the world’s No. 2 gold producer, is moving ahead with Reko Diq as it focuses on so-called tier one assets and pushes into copper, a commodity that’s key to the clean-energy transition. The project, in the remote and politically fractious province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran, is one of the world’s largest untapped sources of copper and gold.