Pakistan’s hidden treasures

Written By: Mohammed Nabeel Ahmed

Today I switched to one of our leading news channels, and there like always they were talking about the amount of debt we have on our shoulder and were blaming the leaders. They were giving the impression as God forbid we are a failed nation now and will never be able to clear our foreign debts. This make me search through the net and see if we can repay them,

After surfing on different website I realized that God has given us the treasures and our country is small in size compare to others yet it is very gifted with natural resources or rather call it “The Treasures”. Allamdulliah We are blessed with many things we have Mountains, Seas, river , fertile land and everything that is needed to make country grow.

There were certain things which really caught my eyes and I was amazed to and thought why media never highlight these things, these things will give us the new hope. So I decided to highlight these really interesting things on my blog.

Salt mines

The first thing that I came across was the salt mines; I was really amazed to know that the world largest coal mine was discovered in Pakistan. We are the only country for having the salt mines with proven reserves of about 10 billion ton in three mines including more than 6.687 billion ton only in the Khewra rocky salt mine, located in the area of district Jhelum. Other two salt mines are Warcha and Kalabagh. The salt mined in khewra is the best, finest and in natural state in the world. It is also belived that salt has been mined in Khewra before the Alxender the great invaded the area.

According to one report the annual production of salt at khewra is about 300,000 tonnes, which is enough to last for 400 years to come.

The other salt mines are wercha which is located 276 km from the Islamabad. The salt appears to be in broken and irregular salt domes . and Kalabagh Salt Mines are located on the bank of the Indus River. Salt is excavated by Room and Pillar method. Some of the chambers are more than 80 meters deep where the salt is still mined manually. There are 13 different kinds of salt seams with different shades of color

We also import around 10-18 thousand tones of salt annually to India only.

Khewra Salt Mines has 1290 meters long tunnels. The mine is anopen challenge to an adventurous spirit. It has 17 levels and there are 50 feet of rock salt between each level in which there are veryl arge chambers, made when salt was extracted.


Coal Reserve

The other treasure which I discovered was coal. We have the 7th largest coal reserves. The coal can be used in many thing most importantly it can help in creating the electricity which is the most common cry on the public. Its been estimated that thar 185 billion reserve can produce 10,00MW for 300 years

Our coal reserves are estimated at 175 billion tons which according to the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Punjab University, Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran equal 618 billion barrels of crude oil. According to the most reliable analytical reports Saudi Arabian crude oil reserves are estimated at around 260 billion barrels. At 60 Dollars per barrel this equates to 3708 Billion Dollars or approx. 4 Trillion Dollars (at current prices). At future prices these reserves will be worth 8 or 24 Trillion Dollars. This is enough money to build the most modern infrastructure, the best roads, the best hospitals, the best education, the best universities, the best hi-speed rail system and the best public transportation system on the planet

In Balochistan there are still many coal reserve which are yet to be discovered, I will not go into the detail of coal reserve as my project mate Sidra Pasha has already written an article on this topic, you can refer to her blog for more details


Balochistan

Balochistan, is the least developed province of the Pakistan yet its full of treasure, tochief mister Nawab Mohammed Aslam, Balochistan is vital for Pakistan economic growth. Its seems like Allah has showered extra blessing on Balochistan, there we can find graphite sulphur , gas, coal graphite, gold and only God knows what is more there as still the large part of the province is undiscovered.

The sui has field is the biggest natural gas field im Pakistan. The gas field was discovered in 1955. Sui gas accounts for 26 percent of Pakistan gas production. Its is belived that there are many gas field in Balochistan which is yet to be discovered.

Aluminium minerals are also found in balochistan. aterite occurrences have been reported from Ziarat area of Balochistan. Zones of high aluminium concentration are suspected in these laterites which needs detailed geochemical investigations. In Jamaica high grade bauxite deposits are hosted in White Limestone Formation of Middle Eocene-Lower Miocene age. Many sinkholes have developed in this karst topographic country that hosts thickest bauxite occurs. Here the ore contains 48 to 50 percent alumina with 18 to 20 percent iron oxide and the reserves are estimated at several hundred million metric tons. Fairly good chances of presence of bauxite in similar limestone terrain in Lasbela-Khuzdar-Kalat-Quetta-Zhob mountain belt are predictable. Large sinkholes and caves developed in limestone exist, particularly in Bolan district of Balochistan. These and other sinkhole areas occurring at many places may be specifically explored for bauxite.

The graphite and zinc are also found in dilband, they have called Chinese official to dig it, according to ministry of minerals they according to the sources of Minerals Ministry, the mining of the said minerals on trial basis is underway in the area and it is hoped that the production of the minerals will be kicked off within a few months to come. It is estimated that 1 million tonnes of Zinc and 32,000 tonnes of Graphite will be dug out on annual basis

Copper and gold reserve were recently discovered in Balochistan`s Rekodiq and will contribute 1.25m to the economy. The Rekodiq project is estimated to produce 200,000 tons of copper and 400,000 ounces of gold per year, at an estimated value of $1.25 billion at current market prices. The copper and gold are currently traded at about $5,000 per ton and $600 per ounce respectively in the international market. This discovery has put Rekodiq in top 7 copper reserve of the world.

Agriculture

Agriculture has always been Pakistan’s biggest tool, We have been blessed with very fertile land, we have the 2nd best irrigation system in the world. Our Cotton wheat are rated among the best in the world. If we manage it carefully and effectively we will be able to get great revenue.

Workforce:

We are the treasure too, we have seen people going abroad and making the name of Pakistan. The brain of ours will help us improving the country and we are the biggest treasure. Everyone is blessed with some skills which he can use to betterment for the country. So all the bloggers should identify their true skills on how they can help Pakistan achieving the great height. All the things I have discussed will be useless if we don’t utilize ourselves properly

We need to work hard to get the treasure out; even pirates travel day and night in their ships, follow the direction of the maps and face the hardship on their way to get the treasure. They have the commitment will and unity to achieve the treasure. So why can’t we have that determination.. The blame game has to get over now or it will get too late.

2 Response to "Pakistan’s hidden treasures"

  1. Anonymous January 20, 2011 at 10:36 PM
    tank you sir well report
  2. Anonymous December 5, 2011 at 10:39 PM
    Thank you, We should thank full to Allah that give us country like Pakistan and now we just need a sincere leadership who deliver Pakistan a boost in the world. And Inshallah that day will soon come Inshallah.

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