Occupied Balochistan :MRDL, the Chinese company engaged in exploiting Lead and Zinc in Dudar in Lasbela District, is likely to pullout from the joint venture for economic reasons. According to well informed sources, all the basic information about the lead and Zinc provided by the Government of Pakistan were not correct. The Chinese experts working on the metal mining site did not say that there was misinformation or deliberately misleading the MRDL, the prestigious company also operating the Saindak Copper and Gold in Chagai District. However, the information did not tally the ground realities�mainly during the exploration and exploitation of the mineral wealth in far away place of Dubar, more than 90 kilometers away from the RCD Highway near Vindar. Initially, the Chinese earmarked around 70 million US dollars as the basic investment to develop the metal mining site at Dudar. Later on the Chinese had increased the investment from $ 70 million to $ 120 million in later years in the hope to strike a big chunk of ore making the venture profitable. Finally, according to credible sources, the MRDL had spent more than $160 million with the no hope to make it profitable or take the company from the economic losses compelling the company to pullout from the venture at a suitable moment. It is predicted that the Chinese pull out from the Lead and Zinc project would be soon, credible sources told this scribe. It may be weeks and months and not year. Chinese had no record to sustain economic losses in foreign investment particularly when the basic information about the mineral wealth did not tally with the ground realities. In addition to it, the Chinese casualties at the mining site had increased unexpectedly, excluding natural death. There was only one Chinese casualty when experts were building Saindak Copper and Gold Project. The Chinese are fed up with the ground condition surrounding the Lead and Zinc leases in Dudar and its surroundings and also around Saindak where unscrupulous people and dubious companies had secured allotment of mines in the shape of mining leases granted by the Provincial Government. Following the Chinese pull out, the Government of Balochistan may not receive any revenue from Dudar. The Provincial Government had started receiving a nominal royalty from Lead and Zinc Project earlier this year. However, the Saindak Copper and Gold is paying Rs 120 million a month to the Government of Balochistan as royalty and it is expected to increase in coming years with an increase in world metal prices.
