NRL Discovers Copper and Gold Reserves Similar to Reko Diq in Balochistan
Karachi April 8 2025: National Resources (Private) Limited (“NRL”), a joint venture company in which Lucky Cement Limited and Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited holds 33.33% equity, has made a significant copper-gold mineralization discovery at its exploration lease, granted in October 2023, in District Chagai, Balochistan.
NRL has identified multiple prospects in the leased area. One of these prospects, namely “Tang Kaur” has progressed to an advanced drilling stage. The company has completed 13 diamond drill holes (3,517 meters), with the first six (1,500 meters) confirming mineralized zones of 48 to 148 meters. The average grade of the intercepts ranges from 0.23% to 0.48% copper, 0.09 to 0.14 g/t gold, and 1.30 to 6.21 g/t silver, resulting in a copper equivalent of 0.28% to 0.56%. The mineralized system remains open to the north, east, and at depth.
Advanced drilling at Tang Kaur is scheduled for May 2025, leading to an NI 43-101 Technical Report by year-end. This will be followed by 3–4 years of detailed exploration, culminating in feasibility studies, while exploration of the other prospects and leases continues.
NRL has also acquired a Lead-Zinc exploration lease adjacent to a well-known deposit, where a Bankable Feasibility Study has already been conducted. A comprehensive metal value chain is also being studied to assess the feasibility of downstream processing.
NRL considers Indigenous populations as key stakeholders and actively supports social development through clean water, education, healthcare, and local employment/businesses. The local employment rate is currently above 90%. NRL fosters industry-academia collaboration and remains committed to sustainability.
NRL is working with the Government of Balochistan and the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) to obtain two additional Copper-Gold exploration licenses, backed by a $100 million exploration fund. The company plans to bring in further local and international investors to support the project. NRL has also entered into an MOU with Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) to jointly work on newly acquired leases.
KARACHI: National Resources Ltd (NRL) has received an exploration lease for minerals in the Chagai district of Balochistan, a press release said on Monday.
A subsidiary of YB Pakistan Ltd, Reliance Commodities Ltd and Liberty Mills Ltd, NRL has received the lease for an area of 500 square-kilometres in Chagai. It applied for the lease in early 2022.
The project will attract major investment in mining and generate direct and indirect employment opportunities for people of Balochistan.
Subject to feasibility, NRL will attempt to refine the product locally before being exported.
NRL has received no-objection certificates from environmental as well as forest and wildlife departments, which enables it to start the exploration activities.
The company’s board has approved an exploration plan and exploration resources are currently being hired to start physical activities.
The NRL statement said the company plans to hire all its human resources from within Pakistan, especially from Balochistan. “We also plan to hire a major foreign consultancy firm to supervise the entire exploration activities. The foremost assignment of this foreign consultancy would be to train the local engineers to make them capable of handling such exploration activities on their own,” it added.
The mining sector has been selected as one of the priority areas to revive the ailing economy by the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), which has developed a roadmap to revamp and streamline the mining chain from seeking to apply for a mine lease to delivering a value-added product.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2023
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