Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said the mining contract for copper and gold reserves at Reko Diq in Balochistan must be renegotiated with the joint venture co-owned by Canada''s Barrick Gold and Chilean copper miner Antofagasta. "I think we have sold our future. Any government, anywhere in the world, can renegotiate such contracts on the basis of national interests and we will do the same," Tarin says in an interview with BR Research''s Ali Khizar and Sohaib Jamali in Karachi.

The finance minister said the present government''s our desire is to have a smelter installed within the country so that instead of selling raw copper, processed metal could be exported. "If we are able to export processed metal, we can fetch up to 500 billion dollars instead of 40 billion dollars under the existing agreement," says Tarin.

According to him, unless the current players make a joint venture with a smelting firm, the government will bring in new firms to perform both mining and smelting works. He has also underscored the need for the setting up of a smelter to process the mineral material from Saindak as well. Please turn to Page 3 for a Q&A with Shaukat Tarin.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010