Will the Reko Diq Project Change Pakistan's Fate
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00:00What are you giving to my people in Balochistan because the biggest concern
00:04here is that you know people are going to come from abroad, they're going to
00:10take our assets and they're going to go away. What are my people get? So that's a
00:15very good question and and and that's the conversation that we had starting in
00:202019. How do we do something different? How do we really create something unique
00:28in the mining world and Rekordec represents that. There is no other
00:33partnership around the world that that is anywhere close to the arrangements
00:41with Rekordec. First of all the Balochistan people get 25% owned by their
00:48government in Balochistan and they also get taxes and royalties out of that and
00:55they don't have to pay for it because it's being funded. 10 of that 25 is
01:02funded by all the shareholders and the other 15 by the federal government of
01:08Pakistan. So it's a real and and the previous arrangements in Rekordec was
01:14very much less than that and then Pakistan has 25% so that's 50-50 and I've
01:22always said a true partnership is 50-50 and so this is something we're going to
01:29do together and we are also attracting funding because the the state-owned
01:38enterprises that represent the federal government are funding that component
01:44and barracks funding the other but we not funding at all. We are bringing in
01:49investors, debt investors to gear that investment so this is a global effort
01:58right that ends up creating and you heard the Chief Minister today he's
02:05already receiving benefits from this investment and what's he doing he's
02:12giving it back into the community. Is Rekordec inflated in our minds that it's
02:19too big or is it just the beginning and it is actually much bigger than what it
02:23is right now? So I always say to my team it's a starter mine it's just gonna get
02:29bigger and if we if we are successful which I have absolute confidence we will
02:35be this is a new frontier for mining this is like Chile 80 years ago. Chile
02:43started just like this remember it was a complex geopolitical position a country
02:4980 years ago now it's the biggest producer of copper in the world and so
02:55this is an opportunity if we get this right of course Barrick and partnership
03:00with some of the Pakistan industry is already looking at expanding as
03:09footprints adjacent to Rekordec and we are also looking at to bring Saudi
03:15Arabia in to partner us in another project so we are already establishing a
03:20bigger frontier and then we will keep inviting the big players the big copper
03:27players around the world and as you know the Chinese are already operating here
03:33so there's a start and if we continue to demonstrate this and I always say the
03:39Tethian metalliferous belt is as prospective as the Andean range in South
03:47America this is the new Andean copper belt. Which obviously means that it is a
03:53sort of a game-changer for Pakistan but we hear this word so often that this is
03:59now sort of a word that feels pretty normal. Yes I understand that. I would
04:04actually like to know what does this mean for Pakistan because I heard at one
04:09point in time that this could be the oil of Saudi this this could be equivalent
04:14to that for Pakistan is that true? Well I think the the thing I celebrate is when
04:20you hire the chief minister you hire the various officials appreciate that we
04:27need to put this back into the community that's the whole objective
04:30this is these are stakeholders in this project and so if we if we're going to
04:38make a real difference in this part of the world it's a long voyage and we've
04:43got to start now so normally mining companies want their investment back
04:49before they share it. What we've done in this project is started sharing before
04:55we generate the revenue because it's an investment this is a new modern world
05:01and we need to make sure that we respect the owners of this endowment and the
05:09owners of this endowment are the people of Pakistan and specifically the
05:14Balochistan people of Pakistan and the people of Balochistan have a question a
05:20very important question and as a journalist it's my responsibility to
05:23bring it to you so that I can give them the answer through the lens of the
05:27camera. They want to see bricks of gold coming out of Rekordik but they see sand
05:35which is obviously concentrate coming out of it. Why do we see sand coming out
05:42of it and not bricks of gold? So that's a good question and and it's worth it it's
05:50all about communication and sharing so 80 to 85 percent of all value created in
05:57a mine is done through mining. 15 percent is added value downstream that's for
06:08copper for gold 100 percent of the value is created at the mine head because when
06:16we sell the gold we get the full value of gold the people that refine it it's a
06:23very high cost low return activity they they trade that gold into the market
06:31that's how they make their money and so and and and if we if we want to create
06:38further value for the copper in other words add value downstream a couple of
06:43things have to happen first of all you need low-cost power and it's currently
06:50the technology and the treatment costs if you ship it to some of the new
06:56modern smelters around the world they can do it better than us here and
07:02secondly to make a return on on downstream added value you need size so
07:11as we grow our production in this region we will ultimately move towards
07:17our own smelting. So it's not a no-go region or no-go zone? Definitely not. It is in the
07:22papers in future. Another question you said because of the high cost of power
07:27Rajasthan has ample solar energy and the solar power is the most economical form
07:34of power why go through the process and hassle of sending all of this
07:40concentrate to another country which includes the shipping cost the fuel cost
07:44obviously it's heavy has a lot of volume as well why not put solar power here and
07:51start the smelting process by bringing down the cost of energy? So if you
07:57look at our plans for Rekordec we're starting with a combination of solar and
08:03heavy fuel because as you know the Sun doesn't shine all 24-7 but as battery
08:10technology improves and Barrick has very big solar power stations around the
08:17world so we're going to start with 180 megawatts of heavy fuel and 150 megawatts
08:23of solar. We've already started doing the research on wind in Balochistan
08:29right here you've got these wind tunnels and we'll continue to research
08:34that. We've also finished a study on how we could connect to the grid it's a 500
08:41kilometer connection and then it's about you have to get redundancy so you've
08:47got to have a ring line to be able to support a big project like this. So during
08:53that second phase of Rekordec development because it's a long
09:00development we start production in 28 we bring the second phase in in 2033-2034
09:08and so we're already studying that. The big challenge within with the current
09:15Pakistan grid is its reliability so we need to enhance that reliability but the
09:22good thing a large percentage of renewable so to your point we should be
09:29able to access cleaner lower cost power.