October 16, 2023 (MLN): Renowned Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, known for his successes in the telecom and gold industries is eyeing an investment in Barrick Gold Corp.’s $7 billion Reko Diq copper-gold project with the objective of strategic expansion in Pakistan.

Reko Diq, in the Balochistan region that borders Afghanistan and Iran, is one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits, capable of producing 200,000 tons of copper and 250,000 ounces of gold annually for more than half a century. Barrick and Pakistan jointly own the project.

Asked whether he was interested in investing, Sawiris, a major investor in gold miners including Endeavour Mining Plc through his La Mancha Resources Inc., said “yes.” as Bloomberg reported.

“I have an advantage compared to other investors. I know the country, I have friends here,” Sawiris said in an interview in Islamabad. “We want to be on the Pakistani side because I have been here for 25 years.”

He did not elaborate on the potential scale of the investment, but added there were few other options, in part due to the lack of geological data: “We tried here to look but unfortunately there is only this one big project.”

Last month, Barrick Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said he was seeing newfound “interest” in Reko Diq from multinational mining firms that have to date been hesitant to venture into tricky regions of the world.

The mine has also attracted interest from Saudi Arabia, whose presence could serve to stabilize the project in a contentious part of the world.

Pakistan’s state-owned energy exploration companies, which have a stake in the project, said last month they were looking into “potential engagement” with sovereign foreign investors, without giving details.

Sawiris’ Ora Developers is separately working on a luxury housing project, Eighteen, and he earlier set up one of Pakistan’s first mobile phone companies, Mobilink, now owned by Veon Ltd., and the nation’s largest cellular firm by subscriber numbers.

Pakistan’s lengthy, difficult official procedures, an unstable currency, and capital restrictions are hurdles for investment, but Sawiris said he remained optimistic.

“If there is concrete in my way, I will drill through it and I will go,” he said. “I have never let anybody in my life hold me back from what I wanted to achieve,” he added.

Copyright Mettis Link News

Posted on: 2023-10-16T10:32:23+05:00