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25 April, 2011
The ICEM-affiliated Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) condemned the recent actions of managers at a joint venture copper-gold project in Baluchistan province owned by Barrick Gold of Canada and Antofagasta Ltd. of the UK. Managers at the Reko Diq project of Tethyan Copper Co. (TCC) suddenly turned its back on a budding social dialogue forum with the TCC Employees’ Union and suspended 12 union activists.
This despite a pledge by Tethyan Copper managers to engage the All Pakistan Labour Federation (APLF) in signing a charter of demand to begin serious discussions over workplace matters at the set of 19 gold and copper deposits in the Chagai District of the southwestern Pakistani province. The charter ended a hunger strike in front of the company’s offices in Nok Kundi.
Sultan Mohammad Khan (center) at News Briefing
But shortly after, Tethyan Copper reneged on reinstating five of the 12 workers, sacking them, and then of 14 April fired four TCC Employees’ Union leaders, including President Ghulam Hayder Baloch and Chairman Mazir Ahmad Baloch. At a press conference at the Quetta press club on 17 April, PCMLF General Secretary and APLF leader Sultan Mohammad Khan denounced the company’s backpeddling and urged journalists and others to apply pressure for reinstatement.
“Management of Tethyan Copper ignored an environment of brotherhood and refused to fulfil its commitment,” he said. “The workers of Reko Diq are of the view that TCC is not offering them anything other than a job, and that job hangs by a loose thread. They feel helpless and powerless now in front of this company because if they demand their legal rights, they feel they will be terminated.”
Australian-based TCC was bought by Antofagasta in 2006 and immediately Barrick’s joined as a joint venture partner on the Reko Diq project to help alleviate Antofagasta’s debt burden. The copper-gold porphyry mineral deposits are said to be worth US$100 billion, with copper reserves of 12.3 million tonnes and gold reserves of 20.8 million ounces. In 2010, the enterprise drew 1.98 million ounces of gold from Reko Diq.