Barrick Gold Corp. says an international trade tribunal has ruled in its favour on a dispute over a multibillion-dollar mining project in Pakistan.
The company, along with joint venture partner Antofagasta plc, took the Pakistani government to the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes after the country denied a mining lease for the Reko Diq copper-gold project in 2011.
Barrick says the tribunal rejected Pakistan’s final defence against liability on Monday and ruled the country violated terms of an investment treaty with Australia, where the Tethyan Copper Co. joint venture is based.
The tribunal will start proceedings to determine the size of the damages on March 22 with a ruling expected in 2018, Barrick said.
The Reko Diq project sits in the restive province of Balochistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan and Iran.
Barrick said the Reko Diq project was estimated to have cost more than $3 billion (U.S.) to develop and is one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits.
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