Minerals: expectations and challenges

A two-day Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025 (PMIF25) held at Islamabad on April 8 and 9 concluded on a vision of turning the hidden minerals of Pakistan into a trillion-dollar economy, a commitment of watertight security to be provided to the investors, and the signing of some MoUs of cooperation.

The plan therein unveiled presented a basic framework to promote mining and mineral investment opportunities across the four provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The PMIF25 has been earmarked to serve as a premier platform for global stakeholders to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan’s emerging minerals sector and unlock the country’s vast mineral potential.

PM Shehbaz Sharif highlighted the mining potential across the country and laid out a policy frame-work and is reported to have stated: “We have to make sure that whatever permissions to potential investors in future … we will not allow raw materials to be shipped out of Pakistan.”

He added, “From today onwards, there has to be an integrated policy where investors mine raw material, have downstream industry, convert them into finished goods and then export it out.”

“Such agreements will entail that investors will bring in technology and transfer it to Pakistan over a period of time,” he said.

Unlike the mines and minerals conferences held in the immediate past, which could not deliver any tangible results, the PMIF25 has gained a significant importance on account of US government’s strategic interest in critical minerals of Pakistan.

According to a statement from the US Embassy in Islamabad, Eric Meyer, a senior official at the US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, who visited Pakistan from April 8 to 9, said: “President Trump has made it clear that securing diverse and reliable sources of these materials is a strategic priority.”

Meyer’s trip aimed to advance US interests in Pakistan’s critical minerals sector, create opportunities for US businesses, strengthen economic ties, and emphasise the continued need for collaboration on counterterrorism.

Meyer highlighted his support for investment in Pakistan’s mineral sector during the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum. “Critical minerals are essential raw materials for our most advanced technologies,” the statement added.

Lined up are also other countries who seek investment from the US in their minerals resources. Uzbekistan, teeming with natural resources, announced this week that it had signed deals with US companies to invest in its minerals sector as demand for the commodity soars. Earlier, Ukraine signed up a deal with the US to offer its vast resources of minerals.

Rare earth minerals, often referred to as rare earth elements (REEs), are a group of 17 chemical elements. The 15 lanthanides, along with scandium and yttrium, are referred to as the rare earth elements (REEs).

They are a group of 17 metallic elements that exhibit similar chemical properties and are often found together in ore deposits. The lanthanides are elements 57 through 71 on the periodic table, while scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y) are also included in this group. These elements are essential in various high-tech applications, including electronics, renewable energy technologies and defense.

Pakistan is believed to have deposits of various rare earth minerals, particularly in regions such as Baluchistan, Karakorum and Northern Areas. Certain areas in this region may also include deposits of REEs, though more geological surveys and exploration are needed for detailed assessments.

In the field of minerals investment Pakistan is walking into untested waters with no experience or expertise to manage agreements whose complexity is far greater than what the country experienced in the power sector where, due to lack of knowledge and competence, it burnt its fingers in negotiating agreements with IPPs (independent power producers) which did not work in public interest.

From the experience of Reko Diq foreign investment in minerals, Pakistan got the flavour of the complexity of an investment in this sector. Reko Dig is said to be one of the largest untapped copper-gold reserves in the world. It was awarded to Barrick Gold.

The project went into years of litigation, arbitration in court of London where Pakistan lost the case and was slapped with penalty running into billions of dollars.

The project stayed stalled for years and only after lengthy arbitration and heavy costs it got restarted. The reason for all this primarily was that Pakistan did not comprehend what it was getting into.

The notion that trillions of dollars would start flowing into the economy of the country soon upon opening the minerals sector to investment is over-optimism. No such thing is happening anytime soon. In minerals it takes years of project development before the cash starts to flow in. Reko Diq is a living example.

Pakistan is at step one in its quest for investment in lays ahead are complex miles-stones, which are to be addressed to invoke investors confidence

1. Infrastructure development;

2. Security framework to mitigate the looming security challenges;

3. Regulatory and policy framework;

4. Legal framework (at federal & provincial level);

5. Foreign Partnerships & Joint ventures framework;

6. In-house technology and expertise development;

7. Environmental frame-work; and

8. Geological surveys to determine the exact quantity, quality and location of rare earth minerals.

Minerals of Pakistan have indeed been left unexplored and unattended for too long. As mines and minerals are provincial subjects and the first right on theses minerals rests with the provinces no integrated policy frameworks to effectively exploit these resources have been put into action. The sector is widely exploited as minerals in raw state are being exported out with little benefits to Pakistan.

The foreign investment in this high investment and highly technology-driven sector is the right step forward under regulatory frameworks, which work in Pakistan’s favour.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025