[PAKISTAN NATURAL RESOURCES AND THEIR

IMPORTANCE IN THE ECONOMIC UPLIFT OF

THE COUNTRY] December 1, 2009

29th
This December
document
Pakist
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include a short but compressive detail of
mineral resource present in Pakistan and also that how it
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Table of content

1)Pakistan
2)What are natural resources
3)natural resources of Pakistan
4)mineral resources
5)electrical resources
6)petroleum resources
7)hydropower resources
8)help in economic up lift

Natural Resources of Pakistan 2

Brief Facts about Pakistan:-

Official Name: Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Capital: Islamabad.

Area: 796,096-sq. km. [Punjab 205,344; Sindh 140,914;

Northwest Frontier Province 74,521; Balochistan 347,190;
Federally Administered Tribal Areas 27,220 and Islamabad
(Capital) 906 sq. km.]

Population: 130.60 million (1998 Census)

Ethnic Composition: 95% Muslims, 5% others

Per Capita Income: US $ 460

Currency: Pak. Rupee

Language: Urdu (National language), English (Official)

Archaeological Sites: Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Taxila, Kot Diji, Mehar Garh,

and Takht Bahi

Major Cities: Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi,

Hyderabad, Faisalabad and Multan.

Natural Resources of Pakistan 3

Geography

Pakistan has a total area of 803,940 square kilometers, slightly greater than
France and the United Kingdom put together.

Pakistan is located in South Asia. To the south is the Arabian Sea, with 1,046
km of Pakistani coastline. To Pakistan's east is India, which has a 2,912 km
border with Pakistan. To its west is Iran, which has a 909 km border with
Pakistan. To Pakistan's northwest lies Afghanistan, with a shared border of
2,430 km. China is towards the northeast and has a 523 km border with
Pakistan.

What are natural resources:

Natural resources are naturally
occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively
unmodified (natural) form. A natural resource’s value rests in the amount of
the material available and the demand for it. The latter is determined by its
usefulness to production. A commodity is generally considered a natural
resource when the primary activities associated with it are extraction and
purification, as opposed to creation.

Thus

• mining
• petroleum extraction
• fishing
• hunting,
• Forestry

are generally considered natural-resource industries, while agriculture

is not.

Classification of natural resources

Natural resources
are mostly classified into

• Renewable

Natural Resources of Pakistan 4

 • Non-renewable resources.

1. Renewable resources
Renewable resources are generally

• Living resources (fish, reindeer, coffee, and forests, for example),

which can restock (renew) themselves if they are not over-harvested
but used sustainably. Once renewable resources are consumed at a
rate that exceeds their natural rate of replacement, the standing stock
(see renewable energy) will diminish and eventually run out. The rate
of sustainable use of a renewable resource is determined by the
replacement rate and amount of standing stock of that particular
resource.
• Non-living renewable natural resources include soil and water.

Flow renewable resources are very much like renewable resources, only
they do not need regeneration, unlike renewable resources. Flow renewable
resources include renewable energy sources such as the following

renewable power sources:

• solar
• geothermal
• biomass
• landfill gas
• tides and wind.

Resources can also be classified on the basis of their origin as

• biotic
• Abiotic.

• Biotic resources are derived from living organisms.

• Abiotic resources are derived from the non-living world (e.g., land,
water, and air). Mineral and power resources are also abiotic resources
some of which are derived from nature.

Natural Resources of Pakistan 5

 1. Non-renewable resources
A non-renewable resource
is a natural resource that exists in a fixed amount that cannot be re-made,
re-grown or regenerated as fast as it is consumed and used up. Some non-
renewable resources can be renewable but take an extremely long time to
renew. Fossil fuels, for example, take millions of years to form and so are
not practically considered ‘renewable’. Many environmentalists proposed to
tax on consumption of non renewable resources.

Natural resources of Pakistan:-

Pakistan's principal natural resources are

• arable land
• water
• hydroelectric potential
• natural gas reserves
• land
• limited petroleum poor quality coal
• minerals

Natural Resources of Pakistan 6

In Pakistan five regions are rich in minerals.
These are as under:

• 1. The salt range and Makarwal region - rich in, rock salt, gypsum and
coal.
• 2. The Potwar Plateau - rich in oil.
• 3. The north-east Balochistan and adjacent part of Waziristan - rich in
coal, Chromite and marble.
• 4. The lower Indus Plain - rich in natural gas and coal.
• 5. The Chitral area - rich in Iron.
• Pakistan is poor in metallic minerals and power resources, but has rich
deposits of few non-metallic minerals.
• Although Pakistan have many mineral deposits which are yet not
expedition and explored.

About 28% of Pakistan's total land area is under cultivation and is watered
by one of the largest irrigation systems in the world.

Agriculture accounts for about 21% of GDP and employs about 42% of the
labor force

The most important crops are cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits, and
vegetables, which together account for more than 75% of the value of total

Natural Resources of Pakistan 7

crop output. Despite intensive farming practices, Pakistan remains a net
food importer.

Pakistan exports rice, fish, fruits, and vegetables and imports vegetable oil,
wheat, cotton (net importer), pulses, and consumer foods.

The economic importance of agriculture has declined since independence,

when its share of GDP was around 53%. Following the poor harvest of 1993,
the government introduced agriculture assistance policies, including
increased support prices for many agricultural commodities and expanded
availability of agricultural credit. From 1993 to 1997, real growth in the
agricultural sector averaged 5.7% but declined to less than 2% in 2008.

Pakistan has extensive energy resources including fairly sizable natural gas
reserves, some proven oil reserves, coal, and large hydropower potential.
However, exploitation of energy resources has been slow due to a shortage
of capital and domestic and international political constraints. For instance,
domestic gas and petroleum production totals only about half the country's
energy needs, and dependence on imported oil contributes to Pakistan's
persistent trade deficits and shortage of foreign exchange. The government
announced that privatization in the oil and gas sector is a priority.

Mineral resources:-
Mineral resources constitutes the

• Metallic minerals
• Non-metallic minerals.

The metallic minerals are inclusive of metals like gold, silver, iron and
copper. As far the non-metallic minerals, these include gypsum, limestone,
marble china clay, sulphur and soapstone

Pakistan is endowed with significant mineral resources and emerging as a

very promising area for exploration of mineral deposits. Based on available
information, country’s more than 6, 00, 000 sq.kms of outcrop area
demonstrates varied geological potential for metallic / non-metallic mineral
deposits.

Exploration by government agencies as well as by multinational mining

companies and various regional geological surveys, conducted in the recent
Natural Resources of Pakistan 8
past have confirmed the great potential of Pakistan in the metallic minerals
like copper, gold, silver, platinum, chromites, iron, lead and zinc. As regards
industrial minerals there is a vast potential of multi- coloured granite, marble
and other dimensional stones of high quality for export purposes.

Currently about 52 minerals are under exploitation although on small scale.

The major production is of coal, rock salt, and other industrial and
construction minerals. The value addition in the mineral sector is mainly
concentrated in five principal minerals, namely, limestone, coal, gypsum,
sulphur, crude oil, and natural gas.

The current contribution of mineral sector to the GDP is about 0.5% and
likely to increase considerably on the development and commercial
exploitation of Saindak & Reco Diq copper deposits, Duddar Zinc lead, Thar
coal and Gemstone deposits

Production in metric tons

ANNUAL
N
DEPOSIT TYPE MINERAL RESERVE SIZE PRODUCTION
O
(Average)

1 METALS Antimony Small 35

2 Chromite Small to 27,458

Medium

3 Iron ore -do- 24,322

4 Manganese Small 655

5 NON-METALS Agglomerate Large 366

6 - Building & Aragonite/Marble -do- 497,317

Natural Resources of Pakistan 9

 ANNUAL
N
DEPOSIT TYPE MINERAL RESERVE SIZE PRODUCTION
O
(Average)

7 Dimension Basalt -do- 217

8 Stones Building stone -do- 16,011

9 Conglomerate -do- 276

10 Ebry stone Medium 209

11 Granite Large 5,676

12 Gravel -do- 19,684

13 Onyx marble -do- 28,780

14 Ordinary stone -do- 1,887

15 Sand / Bajri -do- 92,670

16 Sandstone -do- 2,255

17 Serpentine -do- 4,204

18 Slate stone -do- 108,182

19 - Clays Ball clay Small 1,371

20 Bentonite -do 19,983

21 China clay Small to 61,403

Medium

22 Clays * Large 2,934,218

23 Fire clay Medium 124,003

24 Fuller’s earth -do- 18,446

25 - Chemical, Asbestos Small 60

26 Fertilizer & Barite Large 26,002

27 Industrial Bauxite Small 22,360

28 Minerals Brine Medium 55,903

29 Calcite Small to 15

Natural Resources of Pakistan 10

 ANNUAL
N
DEPOSIT TYPE MINERAL RESERVE SIZE PRODUCTION
O
(Average)

Medium

30 Celestite Small 838

31 Chalk -do- 7,945

32 Dolomite Large 276,668

33 Feldspar Small 32,012

34 Flint stone -do- 73

35 Fluorite -do- 579

36 Gypsum Large 384,513

37 Lake salt Small 16,035

38 Laterite -do- 21,532

39 Limestone Large 8,697,573

40 Magnesite -do- 4,535

41 Millstone Small 1,257

42 Nepheline Syenite -do- 70

43 Ochres / Red Medium 12,780

oxides **

44 Orpiment Small 29

45 Phosphate -do- 1,074

46 Pumice -do- 1,577

47 Quartz -do- 485

48 Quartzite Small to 1,457

medium

49 Rock salt Large 1,212,366

50 Silica sand -do- 157,300

51 Soapstone Medium to large 46,486

Natural Resources of Pakistan 11
 ANNUAL
N
DEPOSIT TYPE MINERAL RESERVE SIZE PRODUCTION
O
(Average)

52 Sulphur Small 527

53 Talc stone (Talc) -do- 260

54 Trona -do- 3,446

55 Coal Large 3,105,715

56 Natural Gas 41.978893 923,758

(trillion cubic feet) (26.98237) (million CFT)

57 Crude Oil 765.237 23,195,048

(million barrels) (300.203) (US barrels)

58 Uranium N. A. N. A.

* Argillaceous clay, clay

and shale
** Ochres, red ochres and
red oxide
CFT Cubic Feet

GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES FOUND

IN PAKISTAN

S.No. Name S.No Name S.No Name

. .
1 Actinolite 11 Hessonite 21 Rodingite

2 Agate 12 Idocrase 22 Rutile

3 Aquamarine 13 Jadeite 23 Ruby

Natural Resources of Pakistan 12

 4 Amazonite 14 Kunzite 24 Serpentine

5 Azurite 15 Kyanite 25 Spessartine

(garnet)

6 Beryl 16 Marganite 26 Spinel

7 Emerald 17 Moonstone 27 Topaz

8 Epidote 18 Pargasite 28 Tourmaline

9 Garnet (alamandine) 19 Peridot 29 Turquoise

10 Garnet (green, 20 Quartz (citrin & 30 Vesuvianite

grossular) others)

No reliable estimates of reserves and production are available. Estimated

exports of raw and cut / polished gemstones (mostly emerald, ruby, topaz,
aquamarine, peridot and tourmaline) are stated to be in excess of US $
200.00 million per annum.

Thar coal reserves

Thar coal reserves have 175 billion tones of coal, which is equivalent to 618
billion barrels of crude oil recently informed by VC of The University of the
Punjab. Following is the list of top 5 oil reserve countries of the world:
Country Reserves (bbl) Production/day (mbl) Reserve
life (yr)
Saudi Arabia 260 8.8 81
Canada 179 2.7 182
Iran 136 3.9 96
Iraq 115 3.7 85
Kuwait 99 2.5 108
175 billion tons of Thar according to Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran
equal 618 billion barrels of crude oil.
This is more than twice if we compare it with oil reserves of KSA and equal to
total oil reserves’ of top 4 countries.

Natural Resources of Pakistan 13

If like KSA, we utilize about 10 million of it per day, it would suffice for more
than 200 years. Not to forget other resources that Pakistan have when
compared with KSA. For example, we have largest
• Gold/copper ore deposits at Saindak (Baluchistan) dying to be
exploited.
Under the barren mountains of Balochistan and hot sands of Sindh, there
is unlimited amount of oil and gas reserves not touched yet. And still further,
we have fertile lands of Punjab, ready to feed a population twice as big as we
are now, the best irrigation system (waiting for more water reservoirs to
enrich it), and the best quality cotton and rice.

Coal
map

Natural Resources of Pakistan 14

 Energy resources map:

Natural capital

Natural Resources of Pakistan 15

 Natural resources are natural capital converted to commodity inputs to
infrastructural capital processes. They include soil, timber, oil, minerals, and
other goods taken more or less from the Earth. Both extraction of the basic
resource and refining it into a purer, directly usable form, (e.g., metals,
refined oils) are generally considered natural-resource activities, even
though the latter may not necessarily occur near the former.

A nation’s natural resources often determine its wealth and status in the
world economic system, by determining its political influence in. Developed
nations are those which are less dependent on natural resources for wealth,
due to their greater reliance on infrastructural capital for production.
However, some see a resource curse whereby easily obtainable natural
resources could actually hurt the prospects of a national economy by
fostering political corruption. Political corruption can negatively impact the
national economy because time is spent giving bribes or other economically
unproductive acts instead of the generation of generative economic activity.
There also tends to be concentrations of ownership over specific plots of
land that have proven to yield natural resources.

In recent years, the depletion of natural capital and attempts to move to

sustainable development have been a major focus of development
agencies. This is of particular concern in rainforest regions, which hold most
of the Earth’s natural biodiversity – irreplaceable genetic natural capital.
Conservation of natural resources is the major focus of natural capitalism,
environmentalism, the ecology movement, and Green Parties. Some view
this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing
nations.

Help in economic uplift

ECONOMY:
The World Bank considers Pakistan a low-income country. No more than
55.0% of adults are literate, and life expectancy is about 64 years. The
population, currently about 167 million, is growing at 1.81% annually. In
Natural Resources of Pakistan 16
2000, the government made significant macroeconomic reforms: Privatizing
Pakistan's state-subsidized utilities, reforming the banking sector, instituting
a world-class anti-money laundering law, cracking down on piracy of
intellectual property, and moving to quickly resolving investor disputes. After
September 11, 2001, and Pakistan's proclaimed commitment to fighting
terror, many international sanctions, particularly those imposed by the
United States, were lifted. Pakistan's economic prospects began to increase
significantly due to unprecedented inflows of foreign assistance at the end of
2001. This trend is expected to continue through 2009. Foreign exchange
reserves and exports grew to record levels after a sharp decline. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) lauded Pakistan for its commitment in
meeting lender requirements for a $1.3 billion IMF Poverty Reduction and
Growth Facility loan, which it completed in 2004, forgoing the final permitted
tranche. The Government of Pakistan has been successful in issuing
sovereign bonds, and has issued $600 million in Islamic bonds, putting
Pakistan back on the investment map. Pakistan's search for additional
foreign direct investment has been hampered by concerns about the security
situation, domestic and regional political uncertainties, and questions about
judicial transparency.

On October 8, 2005 a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Pakistan, India, and

Afghanistan. The epicenter of the earthquake was near Muzaffarabad, the
capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and approximately 60 miles north-
northeast of Islamabad. An estimated 75,000 people were killed and 2.5
million people were left homeless. The disaster of such a huge magnitude
galvanized an international rescue and reconstruction effort in support of the
affected region. The earthquake cost Pakistan $1.1 billion in resettling those
affected.

U.S. assistance has played a key role in moving Pakistan's economy from the
brink of collapse to setting record high levels of foreign reserves and exports,
dramatically lowering levels of solid debt. Also, despite the earthquake in
2005, GDP growth remained strong at 6.6% in fiscal year 2005-2006. In
2002, the United States led Paris Club efforts to reschedule Pakistan's debt
on generous terms, and in April 2003 the United States reduced Pakistan's
bilateral official debt by $1 billion. In 2004, approximately $500 million more

Natural Resources of Pakistan 17

in bilateral debt was granted. Consumer price inflation eased slightly to an
average of 8% in 2005-2006 from 9.3% in 2004-2005.

Low levels of spending in the social services and high population growth
have contributed to persistent poverty and unequal income distribution.
Pakistan's extreme poverty and underdevelopment are key concerns,
especially in rural areas.

Conclusion
The natural resources of Pakistan are no doubt very important for its
economic up lift. Using it properly and economically and together we stand
can up lift our country to the best nations of world .It is pedagogical to know
that Saudi Arabia only sells about 9 million Barrels of Oil per day. It has the
best infrastructure in the world, with a cradle to grave welfare system for its
citizens, superb freeways, fantastic hospitals and an infrastructure that is the
envy of the world. Pakistan’s credit crunch in temporary. Once the country
gets over the hump in the next few years, it can begin improving its
infrastructure which is the best in South Asia even now.

Natural Resources of Pakistan 18