Business
Reko Diq project set to get $3.5b loan | The Express Tribune
Pakistan has already chalked out a $1.9 billion funding plan to execute the Reko Diq copper and gold mining project. Total project funding has been estimated at $4.297 billion. Photo: File
ISLAMABAD:
Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said on Thursday that the Reko Diq Mining Company was very near to achieve financial close with $3.5 billion loans lined up, as the company’s local executive vowed to complete the $7 billion first phase of the project in the next three years.
The Reko Diq Mining Company is very close to achieving the financial close and raising $3.5 billion in debt, said Malik while speaking about prospects of Pakistan’s mining sector during a seminar organised by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC).
The minister’s statement came days after the US Export-Import (Exim) Bank board approved a $1.25 billion loan for the Reko Diq mine, as part of the US Congress’s larger plan to invest $100 billion to secure global mineral supplies.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $7.7 billion, which includes $3.5 billion in debt from 11 international banks and organisations.
Zarar Jamali, Country Manager of Reko Diq Mining Company, said that the $3.5 billion financing has been secured from 11 banks, including Japan, Canada and the United States. Jamali said that the first export shipment is targeted for the first quarter of 2029.
There have been high hopes that Reko Diq miners can solve Pakistan’s external sector problems. But the petroleum minister watered down claims of $7 trillion worth of mineral reserves in Pakistan, saying that “$7 trillion is a presumed value, as it neither has been measured nor calculated”. He cautioned against attaching so many hopes to the $7 trillion figure and said that it takes about a decade to complete one mining project.
Malik said that the government spent the past year standardising the legal, regulatory and safety regulations in the light of feedback received from foreign investors.
Pakistan has already revised upwards the cost of the first phase of the Reko Diq copper and gold mines project for the second time in six months. The cost has now jumped 79% to $7.7 billion from the initial estimate due to the higher cost of loans being taken for the project and to offset any future price shocks.
Zarar Jamali said that the first phase of construction at Reko Diq mines is going on with an estimated investment of $5.5 billion to $6 billion.
While commenting on the Barrick Company split, Jamali said that Barrick has not performed as well as other mining companies. “Barrick has given a statement that it would stay here. We have secured the financing and we are going ahead with the project,” said the local executive.
Barrick’s board has recently raised the possibility of splitting the company into two entities: one focused on North American assets and the other on assets in Africa and Asia.
Barrick’s interim chief executive officer also recently stated that the company remained committed to its Reko Diq copper project in Pakistan.
Muhammad Ali Tabba of the Lucky Group emphasised the need to set up smelting plants of copper and gold in Pakistan, brushing aside the perception that these facilities were unviable. He spoke against exporting raw materials and called for exporting only refined value-added products.
Millions of tonnes of raw material should not be exported, which will be more hazardous and involve security concerns too, said Tabba.
Ali Pervaiz Malik said that to run a smelter on a sustainable basis, there is a need for continued supplies of raw material.
Pakistan is on the verge of operationalising two mining projects – about $8 billion worth of Reko Diq and over $1.5 billion worth of Siadiq project, said Shamsuddin Sheikh, Chief Executive Officer of National Resources Limited. He said that both of these projects are expected to begin operations before the end of 2030.
Col Hamid Ashraf, Adviser to the Geological Survey of Pakistan, said that there was a need to give fiscal incentives for mining to tap the $7 trillion reserves and set a better internal rate of return on investment.
The petroleum minister said that it would be difficult to give fiscal incentives under the IMF programme. In her closing remarks, Dr Zeelaf Munir, Chairperson PBC, stated, “Pakistan’s economic future depends on resilience, reform and responsible partnership. No institution can deliver progress alone; all the stakeholders need to believe in business.”
1729471601-0/image-(8)1729471601-0-640x480.webp "Pakistan’s crisis differs from world | The Express Tribune")
Business
Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time
Stock Market News Live Updates: Indian equity benchmarks opened with a strong gap-up on Monday, December 1, touching fresh record highs, buoyed by a sharp acceleration in Q2FY26 GDP growth to a six-quarter peak of 8.2%. Positive cues from Asian markets further lifted investor sentiment.
The BSE Sensex was trading at 85,994, up 288 points or 0.34%, after touching an all-time high of 86,159 in early deals. The Nifty 50 stood at 26,290, higher by 87 points or 0.33%, after scaling a record intraday high of 26,325.8.
Broader markets also saw gains, with the Midcap index rising 0.27% and the Smallcap index advancing 0.52%.
On the sectoral front, the Nifty Bank hit a historic milestone by crossing the 60,000 mark for the first time, gaining 0.4% to touch a fresh peak of 60,114.05.
Meanwhile, the Metal and PSU Bank indices climbed 0.8% each in early trade.
Global cues
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Monday as traders assessed fresh Chinese manufacturing data and increasingly priced in the likelihood of a US Federal Reserve rate cut later this month.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are now assigning an 87.4 per cent probability to a rate cut at the Fed’s December 10 meeting.
China’s factory activity unexpectedly slipped back into contraction in November, with the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI by S&P Global easing to 49.9, below expectations of 50.5, as weak domestic demand persisted.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6 per cent, while the broader Topix declined 0.86 per cent. In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 0.30 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.31 per cent.
US stock futures were steady in early Asian trade after a positive week on Wall Street. On Friday, in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.65 per cent to 23,365.69, its fifth consecutive day of gains.
The S&P 500 rose 0.54 per cent to 6,849.09, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 289.30 points, or 0.61 per cent, to close at 47,716.42.
Osmond ChiaBusiness reporter
Getty ImagesSouth Korea’s largest online retailer, Coupang, has apologised for a massive data breach potentially involving nearly 34 million local customer accounts.
The country’s internet authority said that it is investigating the breach and that details from the millions of accounts have likely been exposed.
Coupang is often described as South Korea’s equivalent of Amazon.com. The breach marks the latest in a series of data leaks at major firms in the country, including its telecommunications giant, SK Telecom.
Coupang told the BBC it became aware of the unauthorised access of personal data of about 4,500 customer accounts on 18 November and immediately reported it to the authorities.
But later checks found that some 33.7 million customer accounts – all in South Korea – were likely exposed, said Coupang, adding that the breach is believed to have begun as early as June through a server based overseas.
The exposed data is limited to name, email address, phone number, shipping address and some order histories, Coupang said.
No credit card information or login credentials were leaked. Those details remain securely protected and no action is required from Coupang users at this point, the firm added.
The number of accounts affected by the incident represents more than half of South Korea’s roughly-52 million population.
Coupang, which is founded in South Korea and headquartered in the US, said recently that it had nearly 25 million active users.
Coupang apologised to its customers and warned them to stay alert to scams impersonating the company.
The firm did not give details on who is behind the breach.
South Korean media outlets reported on Sunday that a former Coupang employee from China was suspected of being behind the breach.
The authorities are assessing the scale of the breach as well as whether Coupang had broken any data protection safety rules, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement.
“As the breach involves the contact details and addresses of a large number of citizens, the Commission plans to conduct a swift investigation and impose strict sanctions if it finds a violation of the duty to implement safety measures under the Protection Act.”
The incident marks the latest in a series of breaches affecting major South Korean companies this year, despite the country’s reputation for stringent data privacy rules.
SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, was fined nearly $100m (£76m) over a data breach involving more than 20 million subscribers.
In September, Lotte Cards also said the data of nearly three million customers was leaked after a cyber-attack on the credit card firm.
Agency workers hired to cover Birmingham bin strikers will join them on picket lines on Monday, a union has said.
A rally will be held by Unite The Union at Smithfield Depot on Pershore Street, Birmingham, on Monday morning to mark the first day of strike action by agency refuse workers.
Unite said the Job & Talent agency workers had voted in favour of strike action “over bullying, harassment and the threat of blacklisting at the council’s refuse department two weeks ago”.
The union said the number of agency workers who will join the strike action is “growing daily”.
Strikes by directly-employed bin workers, which have been running since January, could continue beyond May’s local elections.
The directly-employed bin workers voted in favour of extending their industrial action mandate earlier this month.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.
“Agency workers have now joined with directly-employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.
“Instead of wasting millions more of council taxpayers’ money fighting a dispute it could settle justly for a fraction of the cost, the council needs to return to talks with Unite and put forward a fair deal for all bin workers.
“Strikes will not end until it does.”
Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time
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