Placer gold auction to generate billions: minister

LAHORE: Provincial Minister Ibrahim Hasan Murad has said that the caretaker Punjab government took strict measures to prevent illegal mining of placer gold while ensuring extraordinary measures to protect the yellow metal. In a statement, he said that a number of FIRs were registered against illegal miners while for the first time in history the theft of placer gold was stopped.

Ibrahim Murad expressed hope that the auction of placer gold was expected to generate billions of rupees. While Placer gold deposits were identified on 25 acres out of 75 acres. He clarified that the total amount of gold reserves is 28 lakh tola and the report of Geological Survey of Pakistan was completed in this regard. According to the report, nine blocks of placer gold were identified and the block method was used to discover the deposits of placer gold. He said that 127 samples were examined by the Geological Survey of Pakistan. Along with gold, zinc, silver, nickel, magnesium and copper were identified in the samples.