Natural Resources of Pakistan

Natural Resources of Pakistan

Under the barren mountains of Baluchistan and hot sands of Sind, 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. What else do we want? 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 is 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. Credible international surveys indicate the wealth of resources and suggest that the area is home to one of the biggest copper reserves in the world with over 11 billion pounds of copper and nine million ounces of gold. The Australian firm Tethyan which entered into a joint venture with the Baluchistan government estimates an annual production of 200 to 500 million pounds of copper from the Reko Dig mining project. A large number of porphyry rocks are also known to exist.

Pakistan has 2nd largest salt mine, 5th largest gold mines, 7th largest copper mines, 5th largest coal reservoirs, 11th largest wheat producer, 12th largest rice producer and 7th country with nuclear power. 175 billion tons of Thar coal, 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.