QUETTA, June 13: The MCC Resources Development Limited (MRDL) working on the Saindak Cooper and Gold mining project said on Thursday it had paid $39.8m to the Balochistan government on account of royalty over the past 10 years from the Saindak project.

A spokesman for the MRDL owned by the Chinese government, said the company had provided Rs10 million for restarting the Saindak project and Rs15 million as the working capital.

He criticised what he called propaganda campaign launched in certain newspapers against the company and claimed the company had also paid $220m profit to the federal government and $6m as rent.

“The company had also paid $13.4m as presumptive tax and $6m development surcharge between periods of 2002 to 2012,” the spokesman said.

He said the company had been providing direct employment at the site and around 1600 local people were involved in mining and running the plant. The spokesman further said the company was also spending Rs206.9m to upgrade schools and health services, provide scholarships to needy and bright local students and drinking water and other amenities to villages around the Saindak project.—Staff Correspondent