Wonderful Pakistan! A Traveler's Notebook, Volume 2

By Jamshed Khan

From the splendid Trango Towers and majestic Mount K2 in the mighty Karakoram Range to the north, to the bubbling mud volcanoes along the beautiful Makran coast to the south, Pakistan is one blessed country. Perhaps, there is no other country in the world that exceeds Pakistan in offering beautiful and astounding vistas and landscapes.

Pakistan is truly a blessed country. It has a rich cultural, linguistic, and ethnic heritage that goes back thousands of years and beyond. For example, Meharghar, Sibi is a Neolithic culture dating back 7000 BCE. Soan Valley civilization near the Capital Islamabad dates back perhaps 500, 000 years. This will make it perhaps the oldest human civilization discovered to date. Pakistan has astounding physical landscapes, terrains, mountains, valleys, plains, deserts, and sea coast that are second to none in their breathtaking beauty.

Pakistan will no doubt soon emerge as the number one tourist destination in the world. Pakistani people are warm, friendly, and hospitable and know how to take good care of their honored guests. I sincerely hope to facilitate this objective of Pakistan becoming a number one tourist destination in the world through my humble efforts in creating this eBook “Wonderful Pakistan, A Traveler’s Notebook.” Pakistan is truly a heaven on Earth!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jamshed Khan
• Release date: Aug 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005188993

Jamshed Khan

Jamshed Namdar KhanJamshed N. Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan on August 6, 1953. He graduated from high school at the Forman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan in 1971, and proceeded on as an immigrant to the United States of America in 1973. In the United States, Jamshed studied electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated with a BSEE in 1979.From 1979 to 1984 Jamshed worked at the Fairchild Semiconductor Company in Mountain View, California, as an Analog designer and frontend Manufacturing product engineer for Linear devices such as Operational Amplifiers and Timer circuits.In 1984 Jamshed joined the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California and was yield enhancement and product engineer for the Optical devices such as Optocouplers and Optically coupled Solid State relays.In 1997 Jamshed Khan became a Factory Applications Engineer for the Optocoupler devices and joined the IEC 60747 SC47E/WG4 as a technical contributor and participant to generate an International safety standard IEC 60747 for the Optocouplers and Optically coupled solid state relays.Jamshed subsequently worked in Agilent Technologies, Avago Technologies, and Broadcom, and retired in January 2017. Jamshed last job title before retirement was field applications engineer for Optocouplers and Industrial Fiber Optics for the Western United States and South America. In this capacity he visited Brazil numerous times. Since retirement Jamshed has indulged in his hobbies and passions. This includes World Travel, Photography, and golf.

Book preview

Chapter 1: REKO DIQ COPPER AND GOLD MINES, CHAGAI, BALUCHISTAN

THE REKO DIQ MINE is located near Reko Diq town in Chagai District, Baluchistan, Pakistan.[1] It is a large copper mine located in the west of Pakistan in Balochistan. Reko Diq represents one of the largest copper reserves in Pakistan and in the world having estimated reserves of 5.9 billion tons of ore grading 0.41% copper. The mine also has gold reserves amounting to 41.5 million oz.[2]

The Reko Diq area is part of the Tethyan Magmatic Arc, extending through central and southeast Europe (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece) Turkey, Iran and Pakistan through the Himalayan region into Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It contains wealth of large copper-gold ore deposits of varying grades.

The eastern and central sections of the belt are well recognized hosting world class mineralization such as Grasberg, Batu Hijau in Indonesia, Ok Tedi in Papua New Guinea and Sar Cheshmeh in Iran. Whereas in the eastern Europe it hosts world class porphyry/epithermal cluster of Bor, Majdanpek in Serbia and more recent developments include Skouries and Olympias Greece, and Çöpler in Turkey.

Reko Diq area is one of many eroded remnant volcanic centers in the Chagai volcanic chain of mountains which runs in an east–west line across Balochistan between the Quetta-Taftan Line railway and the border with Afghanistan. TCC has identified a large, low-grade copper-gold resource at Reko Diq.

Reko Diq Resource Estimates

The Antofagasta PLC controlled by majority shareholders Chile’s Luksic Group holds a 50% interest in Tethyan Copper Company Limited (Tethyan), its joint venture with Barrick Gold Corporation (Barrick). Tethyan is seeking to develop the Reko Diq copper-gold deposit in the Chagai Hills District of the province of Balochistan in south-west Pakistan. Tethyan has held a 75% interest in an exploration license encompassing the Reko Diq deposit, with the Government of Balochistan (the provincial authority) holding the remaining 25% interest, resulting in an effective interest for the Antofagasta group of 37.5%.

The mineral resource at Reko Diq is estimated at 5.9 billion tons with an average copper grade of 0.41% and an average gold grade of 0.22 g/ton. The Group’s 37.5% attributable share of this resource amounts to 2.2 billion tons.

The Reko Diq project site

Courtesy Tethyan Copper Company Pakistan

Tethyan completed the feasibility study in respect of the project and submitted this to the Government of Balochistan in August 2010. On 15 February 2011, Tethyan submitted an application to the Government of Balochistan in accordance with the Balochistan Mineral Rules for a mining lease. On 15 November 2011, Tethyan was notified by the Government of Balochistan that the Government had rejected its application for a mining lease. Tethyan has commenced two international arbitrations in order to protect its legal rights. Tethyan was victorious in the arbitration proceedings.

The deposit at Reko Diq is a large low-grade copper porphyry, with total mineral resources of 5.9 billion tons of ore with an average copper grade of 0.41% and gold grade of 0.22 g/ton. From this, the economically mineable portion of the deposit has been calculated at 2.2 billion tons, with an average copper grade of 0.53% and gold grade of 0.30 g/ton, with an annual production estimated at 200,000 tons of copper and 250,000 ounces of gold contained in 600,000 tons of concentrate.

Miri Mud Volcano in Chagai

Mobeen Mazhar

According to the extensive technical financial studies undertaken, in order to secure optimal ‘economies of scale’ efficiencies, and lower mining and processing costs, a large scale, state of the art mining and processing unit is required at Reko Diq.

Men in a market in Balochistan

Malika Abbas, White Star

Inside a Baloch house

Malika Abbas, White Star

Reko Diq is a small town in Chagai District, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is located in a desert area, 70 km north-west of Naukundi, close to Pakistan’s border with Iran and Afghanistan. The area is located in Tethyan belt that stretches all the way from Turkey and Iran into Pakistan.

Reko Diq is a remote location in the North-West of Chagai district. Chagai is a sparsely populated western desert district of Balochistan. It is mostly low relief and thinly populated desert. The weather of Chagai ranges from very hot summers of 40-50 °C to very cool winters of up to –10 °C with less than 40 mm precipitation (winter rain and minor snow). It also exhibits periods of high wind and dust/sand storms which have a demobilizing impact on the local activities and trade. Access to the Chagai district is via the Zahidan–Quetta highway also known as the London Road.

According to the 1998 census the population of Chagai District was 202,562, along with approximately 53,000 Afghan refugees. The population of Chagai District was estimated to be over 250,000 in 2005. Over 50% of the people of the area are Muslims. According to Dr. Samar Mubarakmand (Member Science & Technology, Planning Commission of Pakistan) Geological Survey of Pakistan had discovered the Reko Diq reserves way back in 1978.

Reko Diq, which means sandy peak in Baluchi language, is also the name of an ancient volcano.

Reko Diq Mine is famous because of its vast Gold and Copper Reserves and it’s believed to have the world 5th largest gold deposit.

The landscape in Chagai

Abdul Razique, University of British Columbia

Gidaans in Chagai desert

www.dawn.com

An aerial view of Kambaran Peak in Chagai district

Mobeen Mazhar

Koh-e-Daleel in Reko Diq

Courtesy Tethyan Copper Company Pakistan

__________

Sources:

Chapter 1: Riko Diq Copper and Gold Mines, Chagai, Baluchistan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reko_Diq_Mine

https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153283

Chapter 2: MUD VOLCANOES, BALUCHISTAN

ALONG THE COAST of Pakistan, the tectonic plate underlying the Arabian Sea is diving beneath the Eurasian continent. This process—subduction—typically creates volcanoes, but the volcanoes that rise from this arid landscape are not the typical kind. Instead of lava, ash, and sulfur dioxide, these volcanoes spew mud and methane. On rare occasions, the gas plumes spontaneously ignite, shooting flames high into the sky.

This natural-color image shows the most dramatic group of mud volcanoes in the area, known as the Chandragup Complex. The tallest volcano, Chandragup I, is about 100 meters (330 feet) high, and it has a 15-meter- (49-foot-) diameter mud lake in its crater that periodically overflows. Some of these overflows have darkened the northwestern flanks. A second crater emerges from the southern flanks of Chandragup, but it is not currently active.

The 45-meter (150-foot) Chandragup II lies northeast of the taller cone, and its crater is filled by a mud lake with a figure-8 shape, probably the result of twin volcanoes whose craters collapsed into each other over time. To the northwest of Chandragup I, the eroded rim of an extinct mud volcano is visible; its eastern rim is more noticeable than its western rim.

Chandragup I and Chandragup II Mud Volcanoes in Baluchistan around the Makran Coastal belt

NASA image by Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data from the NASA, Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

Mud volcanoes are expressions of the ejection of mud, fluids, and gases from the rock formations in areas of high sedimentation rates and compressional tectonics, commonly in convergent margin settings. The extruded material forms characteristic isometric to elongate morphological features largely varying both in shape (elevated plano-conical to negative funnel-shaped) and size (from 100 km² to less than 10 m²) and composed of mud breccia sharply contrasting to the surrounding host sediments.

The Makran accretionary wedge has a much larger number of mud volcanoes then those reported earlier. Using high-resolution satellite images, over 70 active mud volcanoes were identified. These mud volcanoes occur within a well-defined zone; we call it the Makran zone of active mud volcanoes (MZAMV), which is parallel to the regional trend of the accretionary wedge. Mud volcanoes within the zone occur as clusters, which form linear belts parallel to the regional thrusts associated with anticlines. The MZAMV zone also includes the offshore mud volcanoes occurring in the shallow shelf area, including the recurrently emerging mud islands. Several occurrences of thick deposits of old mud volcanoes (Pleistocene or even older) are also present within this zone, which also display recognizable features that are characteristic of the fossil mud volcanoes. We propose that the MZAMV developed and evolved in response to the continued compression within the Makran accretionary wedge, which in turn, is a response of the subduction process. Mud diapirism has been an ongoing phenomena since Pleistocene or even earlier. The events of enhanced mud extrusion in mud volcanoes and/or emergence of island(s) have relevance with seismic phenomena and, therefore, may be closely monitored.

Makran Coastal Belt Mud Volcanoes

Geological map of part of the coastal belt of Makran (modified after Hunting Survey Corporation, 1961), showing major structural features and their relationship with mud volcanoes and their deposits

In the Chandragup cluster, mud volcanoes are spread 2–8 km north of the coast east and southeast of the Hingol River and is considered as the largest active mud volcanoes of the region. It comprises 11 mud volcanoes, along with some dried-up vents, distributed in three sub clusters named as South, North, and West Chandragup. The West Chandragup sub cluster is 18 km northwest of the already known Chandragup (i.e., our South Chandragup sub cluster).

Mud Volcano Definition

A mound or hill shape created by mud ejected from an opening in the ground

Mud Volcano Landforms Have 2 Main Characteristics:

A hill shape or other form

Created by mud ejected from underground due to geothermal activity.

Example of a Mud