Could Reko Diq Add 0.5 Percentage Point to GDP?
That figure has been reported as an expectation for the project once operational. It is a forecast rather than current economic output and will remain sensitive to production volumes, metal prices, operating costs and the portion of value retained within Pakistan.
What Happens Next?
The immediate test will be whether American interest produces a named second asset, completed feasibility work, a financing structure and a transparent development agreement. The larger test will be whether Pakistan finally stops confusing extraction with industrialization.
Foreign capital is welcome. Modern mining technology is necessary. Strategic diversification between China, the United States and other partners is intelligent. Yet none of these automatically guarantees national prosperity. Pakistan’s victory will not be measured by the dollar value announced in Washington or Islamabad; it will be measured by the value processed inside Pakistan, the Pakistani engineers placed in command, the industries built around the minerals and the prosperity visibly returned to Balochistan.
The world has begun to recognize what lies beneath Pakistan’s soil. Pakistan must now prove that it understands what that wealth is worth—and that it will no longer exchange strategic minerals for applause, headlines and raw-ore receipts.
