US firm makes a $500 million investment deal with Pakistan for critical minerals

ISLAMABAD AP A U S metals company signed a million venture deal with Pakistan on Monday Pakistan s Frontier Works Organization which is the country s largest miner of critical minerals signed a memorandum of understanding with Missouri-based U S Strategic Metals for collaboration plans that include setting up a poly-metallic refinery in Pakistan The deal comes after Washington and Islamabad last month reached a bargain agreement that Pakistan hoped would attract American outlay in its minerals and oil reserves U S Strategic Metals is focused on producing and recycling critical minerals which the U S Department of Potency has defined as essential in a variety of technologies related to advanced manufacturing and resource production A second agreement was signed between the National Logistics Corp of Pakistan and Mota-Engil Group a Portuguese engineering and construction company A report from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif s office declared he held talks with the delegation from U S Strategic Metals and Mota-Engil over Pakistan s copper gold rare earths and other mineral information The sides expressed readiness to develop value-added facilities enhance mineral processing quota and undertake large-scale projects tied to mining the declaration declared The partnership will begin straightaway with the export of readily available minerals from Pakistan including antimony copper gold tungsten and rare earth elements it added The U S embassy in Pakistan explained in a declaration This signing is yet another example of the strength of the U S -Pakistan bilateral relationship that will benefit both countries Earlier this year Sharif claimed that Pakistan possesses mineral reserves worth trillions of dollars and foreign capital in the mineral sector could help the country overcome its prolonged financial situation and free itself from the burden of massive foreign loans The majority of Pakistan s mineral wealth is in the insurgency-hit southwestern Balochistan province where separatists have opposed the extraction of tools by Pakistani and foreign firms In August the U S State Department had designated the Balochistan National Army separatist group and its fighting wing the Majeed Brigade as a foreign terrorist organization Oil and minerals reserves have also been ascertained in the southern Sindh eastern Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bordering Afghanistan Several companies have already signed agreements with Pakistan in the mining sector They included the Canadian firm Barrick Gold which already owns a stake in the Reko Diq gold mine in Balochistan Source