Raymond’s Geology Blog
April 13, 2026

Geology and Mineral Resources – Pakistan

Introduction

Figure 1 – Pakistan
Credit: Mapsland, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licence

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a country of 247,653,551 people in South Asia. The country has an area of 881,913 square kilometres and borders on India, to the east; China, to the northeast; Afghanistan, to the northwest; and Iran, to the west. To the southwest of Pakistan is the Arabian Sea.

Pakistan is a relatively poor country where 44.7% of the population live below the international poverty line of US$4.20 a day. The country has a per capita GDP (PPP) of $6,950 and a low Human Development Index of 0.544.Pakistan has a semi-industrialized economy is heavily dependent on agriculture.

In 2024, the top exports of Pakistan were linen fabrics, rice, men's and women’s suits, and knit sweaters. The top destinations were United States, China, Germany, The United Kingdom, and The United Arab Emirates (UAE). In 2024, the top imports of Pakistan were refined and crude petroleum, petroleum gas, palm oil, and telephones. The top origins were China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Indonesia. In the latest year, Pakistan was the world’s largest importer of tea, used clothing, and metallic yarn.

For more details on the country, check out the Wikipedia and Grokipedia articles on the country.

Geology

Figure 2 – The Collision of India and Eurasia
Credit: USGS, public domain

The geology of Pakistan has its origin in a collision of a portion of Gondwana, the Indian Subcontinent, into the Eurasian Plate; a process that began with the breakup of Gondwana during the Late Triassic leading to the creation of a convergent boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plates, beginning during the Eocene Epoch and closing the ancient Tethys Ocean. Moving at a rate of approximately 9 m a century, the movement of the Indian Plate into the Eurasian plate has caused the rise of the Himalaya Mountains, currently rising about 1 cm/year, and the creation of the Tibetan Plateau.

The geology of Pakistan includes deposits ranging in age from the Archean to the Cenozoic. The major tectonic divisions are:

Pakistan’s geology is fairly complex, if you want to dig into the details – and there are lots of them – I suggest that you read this reference:

Figure 3 links to a downloadable geological map of the Pakistan.

Figure 3 – Tectonic Map of Pakistan
Credit: ©Geological Survey of Pakistan

Paleontology

With its complicated geology, Pakistan has a wide variety of fossils. Here are a few examples.

Ambulocetus

Figure 4 - Ambulocetus Model and Skeletal Restoration
Credit: Ghedoghedo, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Ambulocetus,i.e. “The Walking Whale” was an early cetacean that lived on the Indian subcontinent during the Early Eocene. Ambulocetus was originally found by Pakistani palaeontologist Mohammad Arifandand American palaeontologist Hans Thewisse in 1991. The fossil came from the Kuldana Formation in the Kala Chitta Hills of Punjab, Pakistan. Ambulocetus was approximately 10 feet long and weighed around 550 pounds.

Paraceratherium, a.k.a Baluchitherium

Figure 5 - Reconstruction of Baluchitherium, American Museum of Natural History
Credit: American Museum of Natural History, public domain

Baluchitherium, properly called Paraceratherium, was an extinct genus of hornless rhinoceros that lived during the Oligocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. It was huge, it stood about 4.8 m tall and weighed 15 to 20 tonnes with a total body length of 7.2 m. Researchers describe it as "the largest land mammal ever imagined". It lived in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent and was first found in the Chitarwata Formation of Baluchistan. In 1911, Clive Forster-Cooper coined the term Paraceratherium to describe it, but also used the term Baluchitherium. It gets complicated since many different researchers found specimens of Paraceratherium in Asia and published their findings in various English, Russian, and Chinese language journals. The current agreed designation is Paraceratheriumalthoughgeologists in Pakistan favour the term Baluchitherium.

Figure 6 - Baluchitherium Skull at the American Museum of Natural History
Credit: Ryan Somma, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Baluchitherium also shows up in the social commentary of the American author James Howard Kunstler. In his writings, Kunstler compared his fellow Americans to the giant Oligocene mammal (for example:here, here, here, andhere). Kunstler is an entertaining and insightful writer, much better than me. I heartily recommend his work and you can follow him at his websitehere.

Drazinderetes tethyensis

Figure 7 – Drazinderetes tethyensisCredit: Armin Reindl, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Drazinderetes tethyensis was a species of soft-shelled turtle that lived in the Tethys Ocean during the Middle Eocene. Fossils of D. tethyensis were first found in 1996 in the Drazinda Formation of the Indus Basin. D. tethyensis fossils showed a creature 1.5 to 2.1 metres long that lived all or most of its life in the ocean.

Pakicetus

Figure 8 – Pakicetus Skeleton
Credit: Kevin Guertin, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Another ancient cetacean, Pakicetus was endemic to South Asia during the Ypresian age of the Eocene Period. A wolf-like mammal, it was about 1 to 2 metres long, and lived in and around water where it ate fish and other animals. Pakicetus was first found in 1981 in the Kuldana Formation by Philip D. Gingerich and Donald E. Russell. Pakicetus was important in that it was one of the first fossils positively identified as an ancient cetacean by the characteristic features of the inner ear that are found only in cetaceans.

Figure 9 – Reconstruction of Pakicetus
Credit: Nobu Tamura, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Mineral Resources

Figure 10 – Himalayan Salt from Pakistan
Credit: Ivar Leidus, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

With it’s complex geology, Pakistan has a wide variety of mineral resources. According to the most recent USGS Minerals Yearbook for Pakistan, the country’s mineral industry includes metallic minerals, industrial minerals, and fuel minerals. The latest statisitics on Pakistani mineral production from the USGS are here. Let’s look at this industry.

Metallic Minerals
Industrial Minerals
Fuel Minerals

Coal mining in Pakistan includes the:

Figure 11, below, shows the locations of the energy infrastructure in Pakistan.

Figure 11 – Pakistan Energy Infrastructure
Credit: Pakistan Petroleum Information Service

Figure 12, below, links to an interactive mineral occurrence map from Mindat.org.

Figure 12 – Mineral Occurrence Map of Pakistan
Credit: Mindat.org

Summary

Figure 13 – Pakistan Landscape
Credit: Joham javed, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

The legacy of the ancient Tethys Ocean and the raising of the Himalayas has given Pakistan a great potential for mineral exploration and development. However there are risks such as general political instability and endemic corruption. There are also geopolitical risks including the current armed dispute with Afghanistan and the ever present potential for nuclear war with India. The Iranian war, next door, is another complication and risk. Separatist movements in Balochistan and the general lawlessness of the North-West Frontier Province make projects in those geologically promising regions risky. A hard nosed cost/benefit analysis should be a prerequisite to any mining or petroleum project in Pakistan.

Standard Caveat

J. Robert Oppenheimer on freedom and scientific inquiry

The purpose of my weblog postings is to spark people's curiosity in geology. Don't entirely believe me until you've done your own research and checked the evidence. If I have sparked your curiosity in the subject of this posting, follow up with some of the links provided here. If you want to, go out into the field and examine some rocks on your own with the help of a good field guide. Follow the evidence and make up your own mind.

In science, the only authority is the evidence.