For three decades, international mining companies have tussled with officials and locals over a patch of desert around an extinct volcano in Pakistan’s neglected, insurgent-prone western province of Balochistan.
Now, after resolving years of legal disputes, Barrick Gold wants to invest $7bn to revive the mining project, Reko Diq, which experts believe contains one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of copper and gold.
Barrick and Pakistani authorities say Reko Diq will not only be Pakistan’s largest foreign fixed investment but a vital source of copper — a key component for the world’s energy transition — at a time when global supplies are barely likely to meet demand.