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