Mineral resources in any form are a gift of nature in the countries where they are found. Almost all countries rely heavily on exports of their mineral resources, earning a major portion of their foreign exchange from these exports. Pakistan is endowed with significant mineral resources and is emerging as a very promising area for mineral exploration. Pakistan has great potential in metallic minerals such as copper, gold, silver, platinum, chromite, iron, lead and zinc, a fact confirmed by various regional geological surveys, conducted in the recent past. A total of about 52 minerals are mined in Pakistan, but mining occurs on a relatively small scale. Considerable resources of coal (186 billion tons), copper (6,000 million tons), gold (1,656 million tons), silver (618 million tons), lead-zinc (23.72 million tons), manganese (0.597 million tonnes), chromite (2,527 million tonnes), iron ore (1,400 million tonnes) and precious and semi-precious stones have been identified in different parts of the country. Figure 1 shows a brief summary of the country's minerals. Presence of significant minerals ...