ISLAMABAD — Political leadership of Pakistan's two mineral rich provinces on Thursday extended security guarantees to foreign investors, as the federal government is also expected to announce new promissory deals with an international mining firm to extract critical minerals. During an opening day of the third Pakistan International Mineral Forum, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz presented a concrete investment incentive plan to the investors, offering concessional loans, cheaper land on lease and waiving off custom duties on the mineral and mines related imports.
But these loans were mostly meant for small to medium-sized companies. Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assured the investors to address their security concerns, which also led to pausing the development on the multibillion dollars Reko Diq project till June next year. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti announced that a new security division is being established by the Frontier Constabulary to provide a safe security zone to foreign investors inclined to extract the critical minerals.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, the administrative head of the province after an emergency is imposed, announced that the province was establishing a Mineral and Mines Company to take benefit from the hidden reserves. The two-day conference is aiming at presenting a comprehensive and unified investment opportunities by federal and provincial governments to lay the path for exploration of over $6 trillion untapped reserves, which include 92 types of minerals. On the second day (Friday), two most important speeches will be by the executives of Barrick Gold a 50% owner of the Reko Diq mines, and Ivanhoe Mines another mining firm that may today announce a memorandum of understanding with the federal entities.