Pakistan is poised for a breakthrough in its metallurgical industry after the production of copper, gold and its associated minerals such as silver, sulphuric acid, pyrites and magnetise concentrates by the Saindak Project.

The Saindak Copper-Gold Project — situated in Chagai district of Balochistan and close to Iran and Afghanistan — is a joint venture between the Metallurgical Construction Company (MCC) of China and the Saindak Metals Ltd (SML) of Pakistan.

It’s recent inauguration marks the beginning of the first phase of economic exploitation and correct utilization of 412 million tons of copper-gold deposits discovered by the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) at three ore bodies — South, North and East.

The project was initiated in 70’s and completed in November 1995 at a cost of Rs16 billion. Trial production started from November 1995 to January 1996 and produced 1,550 tons of blister copper which fetched $4.3 million foreign exchange through export.

The products exported during the 34-day trial production also includes 12,000 ounces of silver and 6,000 ounces of gold.

Besides earning foreign exchange worth over Rs140 million, the Saindak project also generated royalty of Rs3.5 million. The project ceased to function from January 1996 for want of Rs1.5 billion working capital.

Since 1996, the necessary funds for this dollar earning project were denied by the successive governments. The project went defunct preventing an annual production of 15,810 tons of blister copper silver, 3 tons of silver, and 1.46 tons of gold. The suspension has caused approximately a loss of about $55 million per annum to the national exchequer.

In March 2002, the government revived the Saindak Project with a fresh investment of $350 million from China under the Pak-China Accord.

Under it, Pakistan has leased out the Saindak Project to the MCC of China since September 2002, for a period of 10 years.

The initial output of around 10,000 tons raw copper per day would pave the way for 15,810 tons of blister copper production with 1.5 ton gold and 2.8 ton silver for 19 years from South ore body having mineable deposits of 78 million tons.

The copper content has been estimated at over 99.1 per cent and gold content at 105 gram/ton. Initial copper recovery has been estimated at 87 per cent and gold at 60 per cent.

Moreover, there is potential for bye products’ sales: 82,000 ton pyrites concentrate and 62,000 ton magnetites concentrate from the South ore body only. The East and North ore bodies with over million tons would be developed later.

Besides, the production of copper, gold and silver from the South ore body, mostly for export, the MCC would generate for Pakistan $500,000 per month for over next 10 years plus 50 per cent of the total revenue from the mineral sale.

The federal government would avail this. While, Balochistan would receive $0.7m as annual royalty from the MCC. Moreover, there would be transfer of metallurgical modern technology to Pakistan from China under this agreement.

Copper city: With the implementation of the first phase, Saindak is taking the shape of Pakistan’s first copper city. This city’s components include gold-copper mines, mine concentrator, smelter, heavy metallurgical machinery, heavy mining machines, earth moving machinery, machinery spare parts, heavy and light vehicles, as well as all modern materials required for metallurgical mining processing and marketing of the produce and products.

Also included in this copper city are residential and commercial areas, 50mw power plant, street lights, sewerage system, water treatment plant, bulk water supply system, mosques, schools, hospitals, laboratories, workshops, warehouses board avenues, airport, railroad network with the ECO highway, and rail terminal till Taftan, Pakistan-Iran border town.

Downstream industries: The production ceremony has also paved a path for several downstream industries: copper refinery, steel mill, cement copper production, production of molly concentrate, metal mining and processing by providing employments to skilled and unskilled labour in Chagai district.

Trend-setter: China has become a trendsetter for the operation and maintenance of the metallurgical industry in Balochistan.

Several foreign countries including America and Australia have shown interest in mineral development with focus on copper and gold.

The BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary) of Australia is actively engaged in exploring and exploiting copper and gold at Reko Dek about 31km southeast of Saindak.

The Reko Dek deposits discovered by the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) are believed to be one billion tons rich copper and gold. These mines are expected to produce 40,000 tons of rich copper and gold annually within three years from the date of development.

Saindak and Reko Dek deposits, when fully developed would make Pakistan rich in exportable surplus of this precious mineral, associated minerals and metals, copper, lead, zinc, silver, platinum group metals, iron, and molybdenum.

The EPZ: To make the best use of mineral wealth, two export processing zones (EPZs) one at Saindak and the other at Reko Dek have been planned.

Chagai, the Mineral Museum of Pakistan, has great potentials. An American firm, the Transcontinental Development Partners (TDP) in collaboration with the Balochistan Economic Forum has identified granite reserves in Chagai district for quarrying and sale in the international market, after necessary processing, cutting and polishing.

All, however, depends on the development of infrastructure, security of fieldstaff, consistency in government policy on mining and metals, and investor-confidence in this regard.