In what is being described as the most unfair business deal of the decade, the multi-billion-dollar Reko Diq copper-and-gold project has been placed at the mercy of a consortium of companies who may walk away with its riches, robbing the country of a golden opportunity to lift itself out of its growing external debt.

The consortium will take away 75 per cent of the income while the Balochistan government will get a paltry 25 per cent of share from the project as part of the terms of agreement.

Geologists have estimated that Reko Diq contains mineral deposits worth $500 billion and if the authorities did not take action immediately, this golden opportunity of turning around Pakistan’s fate will be lost.

Preparations are believed to be under way to sign agreements for mining and excavation with a consortium of foreign companies without any effort being made to estimate the actual worth of the vast gold and copper reserves found in the Chaghi district of Balochistan. According to geologists the actual worth of the reserves can be upwards of $500 billion. Economists say that the reserves are not only a solution to the nation’s economic woes, but can also help wipe out Pakistan’s debt.

Pakistan will earn $2 billion a year if it were to mine and refine gold and bronze from Reko Diq, whereas if a foreign company is awarded the contract, it will only get $160 million in royalties.