Chiniot deposits many times more than Reco Diq’s

ISLAMABAD: World renowned scientist Dr Samar Mubarakmand, who heads the Punjab Mineral Development Company (PMDC), says the iron, copper and gold deposits discovered in Chiniot will be thirty/forty times more than those of the Reko Diq of Balochistan.
“When Reko Diq was discovered, it was believed to be the world’s biggest reserve. But now, the Chiniot-Rajoa treasure would be the biggest,” Dr Mubarakmand, who is working as the honorary PMDC chairman, told The News.
He said actual production of iron, copper and gold would start in two to three years’ time and added that mega projects like this require a number of necessary formalities and technicalities before their actual commissioning.
Dr Mubarakmand said that in the beginning production would be slow but as the bigger deposits would be hit, it would hike considerably. He said it was a huge reserve of iron, gold and copper.
The PMDC chief said he has urged Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to bury once and for all the practice of awarding leases in future. He said the chief minister has taken a special interest in exploring and developing the natural resource and personally monitors developments related to it.
He said that the biggest drawback of giving leases is that no competition is held among the aspirants and decisions are taken for political considerations. But in the process, the State suffers as it is deprived of the abundant fruits of such discoveries.
Dr Mubarakmand said the government gets very little while the lessees pocket huge dividends. He said the private companies engaged in such explorations should be paid the cost of iron, copper and gold extracted as per the agreed rates, and the mining area must be exclusively owned by the government.
He said that initially drilling was being done in 305 square kilometres area while it would be expanded to 1,500-2,000 square kilometres.
To a question, Dr Mubarakmand said the production of shipment grade iron would meet the current requirements of Pakistan, but, as the economy would progressively grow, it would not be enough.
He said international bidding would be held for the award of the contract and the bidding documents would be prepared by internationally recognized experts. He said the rates at which the government would purchase iron, gold and copper would be firmed up in the contract and there would be no compromise on the mutually agreed grades.
At the same time, Dr Mubarakmand said the prices would not be static but would be linked with the international market. There would also be an exit clause, spelling out that a company not performing up to the mark would be shown the door.
He said highly professional people have been inducted in the PMDC board of directors. They have been taken the Lahore University of Management School, metallurgy and mining departments of the University of Engineering and Technology and the head of Geology Department of the Punjab University. The board includes representatives of the industry, academia and public sector.
Dr Mubarakmand said the PMDC was a new company, which did not have any large funds at its disposal. However, he said that with the total support of the chief minister, the PMDC faces no problem, whatsoever, in its functioning to deliver.
The Punjab government successfully explored and documented a treasure trove, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Described as unimaginable resource by officials, it was found through technical services of Chinese, German, Swiss and Canadian mining experts. Some 500 million tons of shipment grade iron ore has been secured, according to initial results of scientific geological studies. The Swiss and Canadian laboratories have established 65 % iron content in the ore.
Review of official documents and a Lahore High Court (LHC) decision reveals that the Chiniot reserve is an epic story of greedy, maladministration, incompetence on the one hand and hard work, honestly, resolve and single minded effort on the other.
Eight bore holes have been completed and results of samples test have confirmed massive presence of high quality iron ore and copper. The magnitude of the deposits and the quality of underlying assets has the potential to transform Pakistan’s agrarian economy into vibrant manufacturing based.
Over the past some time, the Punjab chief minister sacked at least six secretaries, Mines, after finding their performance unsatisfactory in the Chiniot project.
Ironically in 2007, the then government had allotted this reserve to a private Pakistani company without competitive bidding. No advertisement was made. Soon after his election, Shahbaz Sharif reviewed the project in 2008 and sensing wrongdoing ordered that the non-transparent contract awarded in total violation of rules and law be cancelled. However, the sponsors of the beneficiary company brought in powerful players to convince the chief minister not to cancel the project. So much so that many senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders also approached the chief minister to change his mind but failed to achieve the desired result.