Pakistan will have to pay almost $6 billion in damages to a foreign gold mining firm whose dig was shut down by the government in 2011, the World Bank said on Sunday.

The consortium Tethyan Copper company -- of which Canadian gold firm Barrick and Chile's Antofagasta Minerals control 37.5 per cent each -- is the largest Foreign Direct Investment mining project in the country.

More than a decade ago the group found vast gold and copper deposits at Reko Diq, in the turbulent southwestern Baluchistan province, and had planned a hugely lucrative open-pit mine.

But the project came to a standstill in 2011 after the local government refused to renew the consortium's lease, and in 2013 Pakistan's top court declared it invalid.

On Friday, the World Bank's international arbitration tribunal committee awarded $5.84 billion in damages to Tethyan, according to a statement from the company, because of the government's decision to shut down the mine.

Pakistan's attorney general, Anwar Mansoor Khan, said in a statement they had noted the decision "with disappointment".

The country's legal experts were "studying the Award and reflecting upon its financial and legal implications," the statement continued.

Ivan Arriagada, Antofagasta's Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are pleased to reach this milestone after more than seven years of arbitration."