Nearly 25,000 metres of drilling reveal extensive mineralisation in Balochistan as a $100 million exploration programme moves toward its first formal resource estimate.
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 13 (Focus Pakistan) — Pakistan's Chagai copper gold exploration has yielded mineralisation across at least eight porphyry discoveries in Balochistan, National Resources Limited (NRL) said Friday. The mining venture, backed by Lucky Cement, Fatima Fertilizer and Liberty Mills, reported the findings as Barrick Mining slows development of the nearby Reko Diq project over security concerns.
One drill hole returned 295 metres of continuous mineralisation grading 0.43% copper and 0.13 grams per tonne of gold, including a 132-metre interval grading 0.83% copper, NRL chairman Muhammad Ali Tabba told the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2026 in Islamabad.
One drill hole returned 295 metres of continuous mineralisation grading 0.43% copper and 0.13 grams per tonne of gold, including a 132-metre interval grading 0.83% copper, NRL chairman Muhammad Ali Tabba told the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2026 in Islamabad.
By comparison, the first six Tang Kaur holes NRL reported in April 2025 showed mineralised zones of up to 148 metres, at copper grades of 0.23% to 0.48%.
All eight sit within a 5.6-square-kilometre area at Darigwan, which adjoins the Tang Kaur copper-gold porphyry system where NRL made its first find, and they follow almost 25,000 metres of drilling across the licence. Tabba said further work on exploration licence EL214 should establish substantial resources, subject to completion of exploration and formal resource estimation.
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NRL has not published a resource figure. A separate consultant has prepared preliminary estimates, but the company is holding them back until they comply with international reporting requirements, and it is working towards a maiden mineral resource estimate under those standards.
“The people of Balochistan must share in the opportunities created by their mineral wealth,” Tabba said. “Our ambition is to build a world-class mineral exploration platform and contribute to an integrated mineral value chain, from discovery and mining to processing and onward value addition,” Tabba told the forum, which drew officials, miners and investors to Islamabad.
The company holds five exploration licences in Balochistan, comprising two copper-gold projects, one lead-zinc project and two antimony projects.
Studies on the environment, groundwater, metallurgy and ground conditions are due to begin in 2027. NRL wants a bankable feasibility study done by the end of the decade.
According to Tabba, Baloch geologists are working with international consultants on the project and Pakistani contractors are doing the inclined drilling, which he said was helping build local expertise.
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The company has also begun building a predictive artificial intelligence model with the Lahore University of Management Sciences to speed up exploration, drawing on geological modelling and data from its drilling programme.
Tabba also reaffirmed NRL’s previously announced $100 million commitment to mineral exploration in Pakistan and invited investors and service providers, both local and foreign, to talk to the company about emerging opportunities.
Through the newly established Chagai Foundation, NRL is also funding education and community development in the district, and Tabba asked industrialists, investors and corporate partners to support its “Enabling Balochistan” vision.
NRL’s technical staff is almost entirely Pakistani, and Tabba said the company hoped to offer those skills to exploration projects abroad in time, using what it learns in Chagai.
Barrick Mining, which owns 50% of Reko Diq, slowed development in April and extended its project review until mid-2027 over security concerns. Its previously announced target of first production by the end of 2028 now faces uncertainty.
The two projects are years apart in development, and NRL’s results do not put it commercially ahead of Reko Diq.
