The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has taken major steps to legalize gold mining in the Indus River after discovering massive gold reserves within its territorial limits, reportedly valued at double the reserves recently identified in Attock.
The Mines and Minerals Department has leased four blocks along the river, spanning from Kohistan to Dera Ismail Khan, to private sector firms for a 10-year period at a combined cost of Rs4 billion. In the first phase, four blocks—A, B, C, and D—stretching from Swabi to Kohat were auctioned, with the government expecting to generate Rs4 billion in revenue from these alone.
An official associated with the project revealed that while Punjab’s gold reserves in the Indus River are estimated at Rs800 billion, KP’s reserves could exceed Rs1,600 billion in value.
For years, illegal gold mining has been rampant in the Indus River across both KP and Punjab, causing significant environmental damage. In response, the KP government has initiated measures to curb unauthorized mining activities. Meanwhile, the Geological Department at the University of Peshawar has conducted surveys to evaluate the scale of the gold deposits in the river.
