mining
A World Bank tribunal has ordered Colombia to repay a $19 million fine it levied on Glencore’s coal mining subsidiary Prodeco.
Lydian International’s Amulsar gold project in Armenia may have to go through a fourth environmental review in less than a year.
The Reko Diq mine case shows the overreach of a secretive arbitration system.
Lydian had threatened to go to arbitration if forced to shut it down.
The tribunal determined that Stans prevailed on jurisdiction and on the merits of its claim, awarding Stans a sum of approximately US $24 Million inclusive of damages, interest, and costs.
Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) has approached a court in the United States for enforcement of US$6 billion penalty imposed on Pakistan
TCC is trying to use the $5.9 billion ICSID penalty to scare the Balochistan government into giving it the Reko Diq project.
In June 2000 the government in power signed a joint venture with Pakistan getting 25% and BHP getting bulk 75%. It was in violation of the internationally established practice of sharing half revenues.
UK registered mining company Lydian is using corporate courts to bully the Armenian government into cracking down on public protests that have successfully resisted a gold mine.
The Armenian government is currently being sued by a corporation for two thirds of its entire government budget. If the UK crashes out on 31 October, it could suffer a similar fate.
It is astounding that the Supreme Court judgment is being criticised due to an unfair award by the ICSID tribunal against Pakistan when that judgment is completely defensible.
The question for Pakistan now is what lesson can be learned from events that led to the ICSID Tribunal making a $5.9 billion award against the Government of Pakistan.
Pakistan has suffered at the hands of an unaccountable and defective dispute resolution mechanism at the hands of the ICSID, and following the examples of India, South Africa and Brazil, should never have become a part of the ICSID.
Abolishing ISDS won’t solve all of the problems of global economic governance. But it seems a very good place to start.
This is a story of the dodgy deal by a multi national company and then earning massive amount of money through a World Bank institution acting against developing countries.
Australian company planned was to mine tantulum, but seventeen years later, the company is suing the Egyptian government for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars after the military regime blocked plans.
In the Reko Diq case registered by Tethyan Copper Company, the dollar-starved Pakistan has been slapped a penalty way beyond its reach by the World Bank-sponsored ICSID.
The Pakistan government has decided to challenge the award ICSID award that includes $4.08 billion penalty and $1.87 billion interest.
The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of World Bank has rendered almost $6 billion (Rs950 billion) award against Pakistan in Reko Diq case.
Australian gold mining firm Kingsgate Consolidated is seeking negotiations with the new Thai government over the case in which it was ordered to cease mining operations in Phichit two years ago.
