NRL strikes gold: Major copper-gold discovery in Balochistan’s Chagai region
National Resources Limited (NRL), a subsidiary of YB Pakistan Limited, Reliance Commodities, and Liberty Mills Limited, has made a major discovery in Balochistan. The company announced finding significant copper-gold mineralization in Chagai, a region known for its mineral potential. This was revealed by Muhammad Ali Tabba, Chairman of NRL, at the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025.
NRL was granted a lease in October 2023 for mineral exploration in Chagai. Over the past 15 months, the company identified 18 new prospects, with the “Tang Kaur” site advancing to an advanced drilling stage. So far, NRL has completed 13 diamond drill holes, revealing strong mineralization and significant findings of copper, gold, and silver. The mineralized system at Tang Kaur remains open for further exploration.
The results from the first six drill holes show promising copper grades, averaging between 0.23% and 0.48%, along with gold and silver. The project’s next step involves advanced drilling at Tang Kaur in May 2025, followed by a comprehensive technical report. Over the next few years, NRL plans extensive exploration, which will lead to detailed feasibility studies.
Additionally, NRL has obtained a lead-zinc exploration license and is working on a metal value chain study. The company is also collaborating with the government of Balochistan and other partners to secure further exploration licenses in the region. NRL aims to bring national and international investors to expand the project’s scope.
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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