Australian firm to study developing gold mine in Pakistan

Australia’s Tethyan Copper Co Ltd said on Wednesday it will spend its A$10 million ($7 million) cash reserve on completing a feasibility study into developing the first stage of a copper and gold mine in Pakistan.

The lode is contained within the larger Reko Diq project and would initially produce about 40,000 tonnes of copper a year at a cash cost of between $0.48 and $0.50 a pound by leaching the metal from between six and eight million tonnes of ore, Managing Director David Moore said in a statement. Copper sells for about $1.32 a pound on world markets. “Over the next 12 months, we expect to spend our current cash balance of A$10 million…