Mineral Resources of Gilgit-Baltistan, under the perspective of its geo-chemical data generated by Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation Islamabad.

Situated on the junction of Karakoram-Himalayas-Hindukush mountain ranges and covering about 72,971 Sq.km area, the Gilgit-Baltistan Province is situated to the extreme north of Pakistan between Latitudes 34033/to 37004/N and Longitudes 72031/ to 77011/

Divided in to ten numbers of Administrative Districts with a population of about 2 million people, this Province is being controlled by the Federal Govt. of Pakistan through a self-ruled and democratically elected Govt; headed by the Chief Minister while having the?Governor of Gilgit-Baltistan?as its constitutional head.

The region is administrated from Gilgit and Skardu Cities as its Divisional Headquarters. Both these Cities are very well connected to Islamabad through, subject to weather, Pakistan International Air Lines daily routine air flights (ATR/42 & ATR/72) ?and black top all weather roads at distances of 597 and 715 kilometers respectively from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The KKH leading north from Islamabad and following the Indus valley provides access to Gilgit and further north to China through Khunjarab pass (4700m). Aerial distance between Islamabad and Gilgit is almost 280 km. and duration of flight is 1 hr.15 minutes.

Relief of the GB region is generally extreme especially in Karakoram Ranges. K2, the 2nd highest peak (8611 meters) is located in the northeast of the region. Rakaposhi mountain system is located between the town of Gilgit and Hunza. The region experiences a wide range of climatic extremes, the hottest months are June and July with scorching temperatures reaching to the high 40’s in some valleys. Whereas in winter, temperatures are commonly less than 100C falling to around minus 200C in the extreme northern mountains.

?TECTONIC & LITHOLOGICAL FABRIC OF THE GILGIT-BALTISTAN REGION.

?Nature has decorated the entire GB region with 3 conspicuous tectonic units globally recognized as the Indian Plate, the Kohistan-Ladakh Island Arc and the Eurasian Plate, crossing the entire territory almost in east west direction. Whereas the 2 mega sutures, namely MKT and MMT stretches over the entire region in almost the same direction on northern and southern edges of the Kohistan-Ladakh Island Arc signifying the two continents, i.e. Indian & Eurasian plates as coherent entities respectively.

Geological setting of the entire GB, therefore, very vividly designates the entire region having most suitable geological environments as compared to the rest of the world where mineral deposits of economic grade are being extracted. These include metallic, non-metallic, rare earth & energy minerals, precious/dimension stones and different rocks of industrial use.

GILGIT-BALTISTAN-JEWEL OF PAKISTAN FOR PRECIOUS STONES OCCURRENCES

Gilgit Baltistan is considered a home for occurrence of precious, semi-precious and dimension stones as more that 70% of gemstone production of the whole country comes from GB Province. An extensive marble belt lies in the Eurasian Plate segment that stretches from Indian border in the east crossing through Shigar, Hunza, Ishkuman right up to Afghan border in the west is known as the only other region in the world that contains deposits of the blood-red rubies, spinel, sapphire and pargasite after Myanmar. Yet another auditorium for occurrence of precious, semi-precious and dimension stones is situated in the Nangaparbat-Haramosh massif where hundreds of mines are being operated in the pegmatite veins producing aquamarine, tourmaline, topaz (golden & white), emerald (new find), rutile quartz, morganite (pink to orange-pink variety of beryl, a mineral that includes emerald and aquamarine), apatite, sphene, amethyst and rutile bearing golden quartz.

Thousands of people are engaged in mining of precious, semi-precious and dimension stones in GB on cherry pick basis, because of lack of proper professional knowledge, equipment and of course lack of financial resources. Due to these factors, this precious resource of GB is badly being damaged as at the moment not a single scientific mine is existing in the entire GB. Cognizant with the situation, GB Govt. is therefore earnestly striving hard to improve this shocking situation and resultantly in context has decided to facilitate any intending National/Multinational precious/semi-precious stones mining entrepreneurs interested to work in GB purely on scientific lines.

GILGIT-BALTISTAN SITTING ON GOLD MINE BEING A HALLMARK FOR FINDING PRECIOUS, RARE EARTHS OTHER BASE METALS OF STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

Consequent to completion of geochemical exploration program during 1992-2001 in the entire GB Province, financed by the GB Govt. with the assistance of Australian Govt. and Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) Islamabad, a huge data base has been generated that give strong signals for finding source rocks of Platinum, Palladium, Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Zinc, Cobalt, Bismuth and Nickel. This raw and non-interpreted data is still lying in the official records awaiting for follow up actions as recommended in the final report of PMDC pertaining to this project.

In the aforementioned report some 108 nos. of gold, 64 nos. silver, 295 nos. copper, 227 nos. lead, 102 nos. zinc, 136 nos. cobalt, 204 nos. nickel and 60 nos. bismuth target areas have been identified in the whole GB and recommended for follow up exploration work to find the source rocks for these metals. Even some follow up work for finding gold source rock was conducted by PMDC after successfully finding gold source rocks in 6 localities of the Province. In addition to the above some additional interpretation has recently revealed target areas for finding source rocks Vanadium*, Rare Earth Elements**, Molybdenum*** and Niobium & tantalum****. Details of the aforementioned target areas are downloadable respectively from the links given at the end of this paper. The integral raw geochemical data pertaining to GB as mentioned in this text is supported by the chemical analysis of 4096 meaningful samples conducted at various laboratories in Pakistan whereas some 2600 nos. of samples were analyzed at Ultra Trace Labs. Perth, W. Australia.

The Provincial Govt. of Gilgit-Baltistan after implementing an investment friendly regulatory regime is therefore on the lookout for National/Multinational mineral sector entrepreneurs for initiating mineral exploration projects in the region by ensuring their respective security of Titles and investment.

For further geological information on metals referred to in the text, please click the links given below or Contact office of the Director Minerals Govt. of Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit. ?????

1:*????https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/high-potential-green-field-vanadium-exploration-targets-shah/ ??????for VANADIUM.

2:**???https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/update-potentials-occurrence-rees-pakistan-(muhammad-yaqub-shah/ ????for RARE EARTH METALS.

3:*** https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/molybdenum-prospects-source-rocks-gilgit-? baltistan-npakistan-shah/ ????for MOLYBDENUM

4:**** https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ishkoman-valley-geological-habitat-niobium-tantalum-yaqub-shah/??????????for NIOBIUM & TANTALUM.

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