Lycopodium (ASX:LYL) has been awarded the Early Works Construction Engineering Services for its Reko Diq Copper-Gold Project in Pakistan.
The services are valued at $30 million and will be integrated into the owners’ management team — with the scope of facilities including phase one village and associated infrastructure, establishing quarries, access roads, fuel storage, and other specific early works facilities.
Lycopodium, which has a market capitalisation of $442 million, says the services have begun and are expected to be completed in Q2 2025 — with first production targeted for 2028.
Managing Director Peter De Leo says the opportunity to continue working with Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) in developing this ‘economically and socially significant’ project will transform the Balochistan province.
As this news service previously reported, Lycopodium and Barrick Gold, which owns 50% of Reko Diq, signed a formal Feasibility Study and basic engineering agreement for the project in June 2023.
Both companies are working together to deliver a Feasibility Study for phase one and two to support a NI 43-101 technical report. The study is due for completion by the end of this year.
A NI 43-101 report is a summary for potential investors of scientific and technical information for a mineral exploration, development, or production project.
The company notes basic engineering — to be conducted on phase one of the project and applied to the process plant and associated in plant infrastructure — is scheduled to begin in October 2024 and finish around Q2 2025.
The Reko Diq project is considered one of the ‘largest undeveloped’ copper-gold projects in the world, which is 50% owned by Barrick Gold, 25% owned by three state-owned enterprises, 15% owned by the Province of Balochistan on a fully funded basis and the remaining 10% on a free carried basis.
Lycopodium is an engineering, construction, and asset management solutions company that delivers complex and multidisciplinary projects through to the provision of Feasibility Studies and advisory services.
The company has delivered projects around the world and has offices in Australia, South Africa, Canada, Peru, Ghana, and the Philippines.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Lycopodium
