✦ Reko Diq & the Security ProblemThin moat

Reko Diq is the biggest thing Barrick owns that it does not yet mine: a copper-gold deposit in Balochistan, held 50% by Barrick with Pakistani federal and provincial interests holding the rest, designed for a first phase of about 240,000 tonnes of copper and 297,000 ounces of gold a year, rising in a second phase toward 460,000 tonnes and 520,000 ounces¹. On geology alone it is a generational asset.

On geography it is the reason this page is rated the way it is. In February 2026, citing escalating security risks and an increase in security incidents, Barrick slowed development, reduced capital spending and extended its technical and financing review to mid-2027 — while flagging potential significant increases to the previously disclosed capital budget and timeline². The 2028 first-production target, reiterated for years, now sits behind a review rather than a schedule.

This is the jurisdiction risk that runs through Barrick's whole story, in its most concentrated form — the same risk that produced the Mali seizure and the retrospective mining-code payments that followed. A miner does not choose where the ore is, which is precisely why political risk is not diversifiable for this industry. Watch what the mid-2027 review concludes: a restated capital budget and a credible date would make Reko Diq a decade-defining asset. Continued deferral, or a write-down, would confirm that the world's best undeveloped copper deposits are mostly in the world's hardest places for a reason.