QUETTA: With coronavirus lockdown in Balochistan causing hardship to people, two companies joined hands to donate essential food items to families in villages around the Saindak copper-gold project area in Chagai district .

MCC Resource Development Limited (MRDL) and state-owned Saindak Metal Li­­mited (SML) recently distributed 25kg flo­ur, five litres cooking oil, 10kg rice and two kg sugar to 300 families residing in six villages.

MRDL is a subsidiary of Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) which has been working with local communities for 18 years.

According to a statement, MCC president Zhang Mengxing said that current circumstances were such that it had become extremely difficult for them to procure and transport basic necessities and production materials to the Saindak site.

However, the state-owned enterprise of China, MRDL would try its best to help the locals out of its difficulties and keep running the operation of the Saindak project, including ensuring uninterrupted water and power supply from the site to nearby villages to meet their daily needs, it stated further.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2020