Gold reserves, precious stones, and minerals: Where are Pakistan's 'trillion-dollar' resources hidden?
Gold reserves, precious stones, and minerals: Where are Pakistan's 'trillion-dollar' resources hidden?
Pakistan's resources: In the dry and dusty Chagai region of Pakistan's Balochistan province, some of the world's most valuable mineral resources are hidden. These include large amounts of copper and gold.
Pakistan's political and military leaders believe these resources can attract billions of dollars in investment. After the discoveries at Reko Diq and Saindak, there are now new claims of more mineral findings in Chagai. A private company, National Resources Limited (NRL), which has the contract for mineral exploration in Chagai, says they have found new reserves of gold and copper in the area.
At the 'Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025' held last week, NRL shared that signs of minerals have been found in the 'Tang Ghor' area of Chagai. NRL's head, Muhammad Ali Tabba, said international experts and investors will also join this big project.
During the same event, Mari Energies claimed they discovered new gas and oil reserves in North Waziristan, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to them, this is the fourth discovery in that area. In testing, it produced 70 million cubic feet of gas and 310 barrels of condensate daily.
Over the two-day conference, Pakistani and Turkish state companies signed an agreement to work together for offshore oil and gas exploration. Under this agreement, Pakistan's Mari Energies, OGDCL, and PPL will work with Turkey's state company to explore the sea areas. Officials say these resources stayed untapped because of administrative problems, security issues, and lack of focus by political leaders.
However, last week, the government once again promised to use these resources to boost Pakistan's economy.
The 'Minerals Conference' in Islamabad saw participation from over twenty countries, including the US, China, and Saudi Arabia. Investors and delegates attended to explore Pakistan's mineral sector, which the government is calling a 'trillion-dollar sector'. The aim of the conference was to present Pakistan as an important global player, especially in critical minerals.
Senior government and military leaders called the conference a 'milestone' for the economy.
But critics say that this is not the first time Pakistan has promised to turn 'stones into gold'.
Before discussing if these promises will happen, it's important to understand what minerals Pakistan has and where they are found.
Where are minerals found in Pakistan?
Pakistan divides minerals into different categories. Strategic minerals include copper, gold, lithium, rare earth minerals, and chromite.
These are used in electronics, defense, and green technology, making them highly valuable for security and investment.
Energy minerals like coal and uranium are important for electricity and nuclear programs.
Industrial minerals such as salt, limestone, gypsum, and barite are needed for construction and farming. Precious stones are small but valuable and help earn money from exports.
Balochistan: The mineral hub
Balochistan, though troubled, holds large and important mineral resources, because of this, it is often called 'Pakistan's mineral center'.
In the 1970s, the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) discovered copper and gold at Reko Diq and Saindak. Several decades ago, GSP also found signs of gold reserves in Chagai. However, the project got stuck because of legal and economic problems. Now, under Canadian company Barrick Gold's leadership, work has started again to extract minerals from the area.
In late 2022, a new agreement was signed. Under it, the Balochistan government will have a 25% share, the federal government 25%, and Barrick Gold 50%. Barrick Gold promised to invest in the project and start production by the end of this decade. Officials now hope that production will start by 2028.
According to local media, Saudi company Manara Minerals may also invest here. Barrick Gold's CEO, Mark Bristow, said that after the second phase of Reko Diq is complete, the site could produce 400,000 tons of copper every year. He also said the growing global need for copper, for electric vehicles, green energy, and electricity, can bring great economic benefits to Pakistan.
The Saindak project, which started after copper and gold were discovered there in 1973, was Pakistan's first major mining project. It is estimated that Saindak has several hundred million tons of raw material. A Chinese company currently operates the project. Balochistan not only has copper and gold but also many other minerals.
In the Muslim Bagh region of Qila Saifullah, chromite has been mined for centuries. Chromite is important for making stainless steel. Recently, claims have been made about the presence of lithium and rare earth minerals in Chagai and Khuzdar. The government considers these minerals critical for the future.
In the 1960s, GSP found large reserves of barite in Khuzdar. Barite is used in oil and gas drilling. The same rock formations also have fluorite deposits near Kalat and Mastung.
In Lasbela, Pakistan's first modern lead and zinc mine is located, discovered by GSP and developed with Chinese support. Coal is also found in Sore Range-Degari, Dukki, Mach, and Khost areas of Balochistan. Though these coal reserves are smaller and less powerful than those in Punjab and Sindh, they have supported local industries and railways for decades. They also provide jobs to thousands of workers.
However, many local people complain that they do not get a fair share of the wealth and accuse the authorities of hiding details about the projects. These complaints have led to unrest and anger in Balochistan.
Precious stones in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
At the minerals conference held last year, the government also claimed that large reserves of gas and minerals have been found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Mining is expected to start soon. However, a new 'Mines and Minerals Bill' about this province created controversy. A scheduled briefing on the bill was postponed on the orders of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Both the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and opposition parties have raised concerns about this bill. Swat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is famous around the world for its emeralds. These beautiful green stones are highly valued in jewelry. Even today, locals search the riverbeds to find shining emeralds.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
20 minutes ago
- First Post
Pakistan: Former PM Imran Khan likely to get bail in Al-Qadir Trust case on June 11, says top PTI leader
Incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan is likely to get bail on June 11 in the Al-Qadir Trust case, a top party leader has said here. read more Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to secure bail on June 11 in the Al-Qadir Trust case, according to a senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, even as the party gears up for a fresh political battle under his leadership from behind bars. The Islamabad High Court is scheduled to hear pleas seeking suspension of convictions handed to Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in the high-profile case involving the alleged misappropriation of £190 million recovered by UK authorities from a Pakistani property tycoon. The case has become a central point in the ongoing legal troubles facing the PTI founder, who has been incarcerated at Adiala Jail since August 2023. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Speaking to ARY News, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan expressed confidence that Khan and his wife would receive relief when the court convenes next week. The hearing had previously been deferred at the request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which sought more time to finalise its arguments. The Al-Qadir Trust case centres on allegations that the Khan government unlawfully facilitated the transfer of £190 million, originally frozen by Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA)—to a real estate developer's liabilities in Pakistan. In return, a charitable trust set up by Khan and Bushra Bibi allegedly received a land donation from Bahria Town, the tycoon's firm. Both Khan and his wife are named as the sole trustees. Gohar told ARY News on Saturday that the PTI will collaborate with opposition parties to launch a movement, which will be led by the party's patron-in-chief from jail. He urged the opposition parties to join PTI for the sake of the country's survival and security and revealed that a strategy for the upcoming budget has been finalised. 'The party will address a press conference on June 9 regarding it,' he said. Earlier last month, Khan had said he would lead his party's upcoming protest movement against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led coalition government at the Centre, from the prison. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister and a prominent leader of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf: party, Ali Amin Gandapur, earlier this week threatened to launch a full-scale movement for the cricketer-turned-politician's release after Eid Al-Adha. Khan, who faces multiple cases and has been convicted in a few of them, has repeatedly claimed the February 8 general elections of last year to have witnessed the 'Mother of All Rigging.' He has called his rivals the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as 'mandate thieves.' Rana Sanaullah, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs, while speaking with the media at his hometown of Faisalabad in Punjab on Saturday, urged the PTI to accept Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's offer of a meeting for negotiations and sit with the government to make amendments to the election laws. Gohar claimed Khan's wife Bushra Bibi, was being held in jail without any charges to pressure the PTI founder and claimed no deals will be made for the founder's release. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He also dismissed rumors of internal rifts within PTI. Some years ago, the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom agreed to a settlement worth 190 million pounds with the family of property tycoon Malik Riaz. According to an earlier report in Dawn, the NCA, in August 2019, declared that it was granted freezing orders on eight bank accounts containing 100 million pounds, 'suspected to have derived from bribery and corruption in an overseas nation.' The NCA said it had informed the then-government, run by Khan's PTI. It is alleged that Khan asked Shehzad Akbar, his aide on accountability, to resolve the matter, who in turn, 'settled' the case with the frozen funds belonging to the national treasury being adjusted against Bahria Town's liability, the Dawn said. Bahria Town Ltd, Malik's real estate firm, was found to have illegally acquired thousands of acres of land on Karachi's outskirts in the district of Malir. It had donated hundreds of acres of land to the Al-Qadir Trust, a non-profit that has only two trustees – Khan and Bushra Bibi. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies
Hindustan Times
29 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
India's strategic culture and how it uses force
Does a tradition of risk aversion continue to define India's strategic culture and its use of force? Does this aversion embolden adversaries to consider the use of force more easily, threaten its use more effectively, and use it more readily? Has our self-professed 'peace-loving' identity become a self-fulfilling prophecy, constraining our military doctrines and warfighting impulses? A quick review of the historical record will demonstrate that, despite being a conventionally weaker power, Pakistan has consistently engaged in war initiation vis-à-vis India. Pakistan initiated the 1947-48 war, seizing a large part of Jammu and Kashmir. It also initiated the 1965 war. In 1971, Pakistan attacked Indian airfields, technically initiating the war. And in 1999, India was merely responding to Pakistan's infiltration into the Kargil sector in large numbers. In each case, Pakistan initiated the conflict, and India responded. Let me expand the definition of initiation of hostilities to make a larger point. Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism against India also falls within the broad definition of conflict initiation. This includes the 2001 Parliament attack (killing nine people), the 2008 Mumbai massacre (over 160 fatalities), the 2016 Uri attack (19 soldiers killed), the Pulwama attack (40 CRPF personnel dead), and the recent Pahalgam killings (26 civilians). In each of these cases, the Pakistani side initiated the hostilities, if you view the use of sub-conventional force as initiation of hostilities. India's response to these sub-conventional attacks from Pakistan has evolved over the past 25 years. Initially, threats were made but not carried out (2001 and 2008), followed by demonstration strikes with minimal effect (2016), and finally, a more selective and measured application of force was adopted in 2019 and 2025. In each instance, Pakistan initiated hostilities, with India either reluctant to respond by using force or being constrained in its use. Let me come to a third aspect regarding the use of force. Despite credibly overcoming its long-held reluctance to use force, India's application of it remains suboptimal, perhaps indicative of a risk-averse strategic culture. Consider, for instance, the recent India-Pakistan standoff. India's use of force, even when it decides to use it, is puzzling in at least three ways, each stemming from a hesitant strategic culture that, while waning from 2001 to 2025, continues to have a profound influence on our conceptions of 'appropriate and acceptable' use of force. First, India's decisions regarding the use of force are still largely driven by a reputational imperative — a deep-seated desire to demonstrate to the international community that it is a responsible actor. But in a military conflict, what ultimately matters are the material outcomes, not reputational considerations. Are our reputational urges constraining our military objectives? Second, India is a hesitant user of force. There appears to be a politico-cultural intent to define the limits of force even before it begins — to ensure that it doesn't spread — and we seek to stick to that.. This creates an inherent paradox: India demonstrates an inexplicable preference for using force in ways that minimise impact, rather than maximise its effectiveness. The logic of military force must be to maximise impact with minimal force, as opposed to minimal impact with either maximum or minimal force. Third, by publicly limiting the scope of military outcomes, we seem to prioritise sending a political message over achieving decisive military outcomes. Here's the problem with that approach. While India seeks to drive home a political point, Pakistan seeks to drive home a military point. While India seeks to limit the scope, impact, targets, and scale of the operation, Pakistan seeks to expand those very variables in its response before the contest is called off. While India approaches the use of force through a political lens, Pakistan prioritises purely military considerations. While India's approach to war reflects Clausewitz's dictum that it is politics by other means, Pakistan appears to use force for military outcomes alone. India's political signaling appears to have little impact on Pakistani military thinking. Thus, the two sides operate with fundamentally different frameworks and India's desire to drive home a political point is lost on Rawalpindi. India's political approach to war isn't fundamentally flawed, but it appears ineffective in the context of India-Pakistan relations. India's risk-averse approach to using force is suboptimal in the India-Pakistan context for two key reasons. First, in Indo-Pak conflicts, history tells us that early gains are not just important, they also are often decisive. An Indian strategy prioritising political messaging, minimum military gains, and delayed third-party intervention is unlikely to produce early gains unlike Pakistan's strategy that prioritises early military gains, little political messaging and quick third-party intervention. India's doctrinal evolution on the use of force over the past 25 years has been remarkable, but serious introspection after each military conflict is a must to improve future preparedness, as such conflicts are unlikely to disappear. Happymon Jacob teaches India's foreign policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University and is editor, INDIA'S WORLD magazine. The views expressed are personal
Time of India
34 minutes ago
- Time of India
Unpaid jets, unfinished planes: China's 50% discounted fighter plane sale to Pakistan; citizens ask who is benefiting?
Beijing's fast track delivery plan of 30 J-35A stealth fighter jets to Pakistan at half the price triggered a storm of backlash across Chinese social media platforms. The move, which would mark China's first export of a fifth-generation combat aircraft, is being widely criticised as financially and strategically reckless. The deal is expected to begin deliveries in August 2025. However, the decision has left many Chinese citizens baffled and angry, especially as the J-35A, also known as the FC-31, is still undergoing testing and has not even yet been inducted into China's own air force. One user, posting under the handle @Zhejiang from the Yingyang Medical School, asked, 'Pakistan has also made a lot of fake news. How can it afford to buy it? It hasn't even paid for the J-10.' The comment refers to Pakistan's pending payments for earlier J-10C fighter jets purchased from China. Another user, @CQL0530, criticised Beijing's production priorities, 'China's own production of the J-35 has not yet been built up. How can it be given to them?' Some users dispensed with any diplomacy. 'Bullshit!' wrote another user, quoted by ET. The phrase '2 more powerful printers are coming,' shared by user Cracked Rose, was interpreted by some as a reference to the government printing more money, or jets, to fund the project. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 오스템 임플란트 받아가세요 임플란터 더 알아보기 Undo 'A charity sale', or 'strategic leverage' Beyond the jet's readiness, the announcement's timing has also drawn scrutiny. It comes just days after a terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, prompting Indian analysts to see the deal as China arming Pakistan amid renewed cross-border tensions. Back home, users are questioning whether the government is, in effect, subsidising a military client state with limited ability to pay. 'It is more in your interest to spend money on building and purchasing industrial equipment and infra,' one commenter wrote. The root of concern is whether China is selling a 'concept jet,' a fighter still in development, as a finished product. While the J-35 is designed to rival platforms like the US-made F-35, it lacks any combat history or proven capabilities. A shaky pitch China previously tried to market the J-10CE, another fighter jet supplied to Pakistan, as 'combat-tested', citing claims from Islamabad that it shot down Indian Rafales during Operation Sindoor. But these claims remained unverified outside Pakistani media and have been met with scepticism. Efforts to sell the J-10CE to countries like Egypt, Brazil, and Uzbekistan have so far failed. Experts point to its reliance on Russian engines, such as the RD-93 and AL-31, which are seen as outdated and increasingly risky given geopolitical tensions and supply chain concerns. Reports suggest that Pakistani pilots are already undergoing training in China to fly the J-35. However, the Chinese government has not issued any official statement on the backlash or confirmed the details of the sale. While India is expected to keep a close eye on how this unfolds, many in China are simply asking, who benefits? If the deal goes ahead, Beijing might frame it as a strategic move to cement influence in the region. But for many ordinary citizens, it's beginning to look like a high-risk bet, funded by the Chinese taxpayer, on an unfinished aircraft sold to a customer with an unreliable credit record.
