Pakistan welcomes venture's willingness for negotiated settlement after Reko Diq mine ruling

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Sunday it welcomed a statement by Tethyan Copper expressing willingness for a negotiated settlement after a World Bank tribunal ordered the government to pay $5.8 billion in damages in a dispute over the Reko Diq copper mine.

The statement from the attorney general's office came after a World Bank arbitration court ruled in favour of Tethyan Copper, a joint venture between Chile's Antofagasta Plc and Canada's Barrick Gold, in a dispute over a lease to the mine, located in a remote area of southwestern Pakistan.

The government, which earlier this month signed a $6 billion bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund, said it had taken note of a statement from Tethyan Copper's chairman expressing willingness to seek a negotiated settlement.

"The Government of Pakistan welcomes this approach to work towards a mutually beneficial solution that works for both sides," it said.

However, it said that together with the provincial government of Balochistan, it was still studying the decision by the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The ICSID ruled against Pakistan in 2017, but had not determined damages owed to Tethyan until now.

Tethyan Copper discovered vast mineral wealth more than a decade ago in Reko Diq, at the foot of an extinct volcano near Pakistan's frontier with Iran and Afghanistan.