MINERALS IN KPK:

Mineral resources of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and

FATA are divided into northern and southern parts for easy
approach and understanding of readers, researchers, mine owners
and planners. The northern area includes different tectonometallic
and sedimentary basins like Chitral-Tirich Mir zones (Hindukush-
Karakoram block), Kohistan magmatic arc; northern Indus Suture
and Khyber-Hazara (NW Himalayas). The southern areas of KP and
FATA include different tectonometallic and sedimentary basins like
northern part of western Indus Suture, Kohat Sub-Basin (western
Upper Indus Basin), northwestern Sulaiman Basin (upper part of
Middle Indus Basin) and interfingering of Sulaiman and Kohat Sub-
Basin (Pezu to Kohat).

ALUM:
It is potash alum or kaolinite KAl (SO4)2 12H2O.
USES:

It is used for preservation of skin, mordant in dyeing, as an

astringent in medicine and for removing suspended material from
water.

LOCATION:

Bituminous alum shale has been occurring in shale’s of

possible Carboniferous age near Shahidmena in Khyber Agency
(Heron and Crookshank 1954).
 ABRASIVES:
USES:

Tripoli, garnet, corundum, emery, aluminum

oxide, silicon carbide, pumice, etc are chiefly used for polishing.
Abrasive cloth and papers are made from Tripoli, garnet, emery and
common quartz sand .

ANTIMONY:
USES:

It is used in the manufacture of alloys, antimony

compounds, imparts hardness to final product, storage batteries,
making opaque white enamel and other sanitary wares etc.

LOCTION:

Stibnite (antimony trisulphide Sb2S3) is reported from the

Chitral state (Krinj, Partson and Awireth areas) and showing in Swat
area.

ARSENIC:
Arsenic is produced mainly as a by product in the smelting
of the copper and lead ores. The chief mineral that yield arsenic
are arsenopyrite, realgar, orpiment and tetrahedrite.

USES:
Arsenic oxide is used in the manufacture of insecticides, such as
Paris green, and the arsenates of calcium, lead, manganese and
magnesium. It is also used to counteract the iron coloration in
the manufacture of glass.

LOCATION:

It is located in CHITRAL. Now being hazardous minerals

both arsenic and asbestos production is stopped.

ASBESTOS:
It is fibrous form of mineral silicates of serpentine
and amphibole group of rock forming minerals.

USES:

Due to its fibrous and fire proof property it has several

industrial use like production of fire proof textiles, clothings, brake
linings, gaskets, electrical insulation materials, paper and other
products.

HAZARDS:

Asbestos is associated with health hazard because person involved

in prolonged occupational exposure to heavy concentrations of
asbestos dust, without proper protective devices, are liable to
contract asbestosis and even lung cancer .

LOCATION:

It is located in Kaniguran (Waziristan),and Sakhakot-Qila

area (Mohmand).
BARITE:
USES:

It is barium sulphate mainly used for weighting agent in drilling

mud, barium chemicals, white pigment and paper industries.
LOCATION:

It is deposited by hydrothermal solutions. Some barite

deposits at Kag, Aluli, Darwaza, Kacchi, Faqir Mohd, and Tipra (near
Haripur).

BISMUTH-CADMIUM-COBALT:
It may occur in red iron oxide zones
of Karakoram Suture (Drosh-Sur Laspur-Shandor Top). It is mostly
associated with cobalt and gold deposits.

CHROMITE:
It occurs mostly in the Besham Jijal chromite, Kohistan
(District Swat) is located near Jijal (Kohistan District) on the
Karakoram highway.

GRAPHITE:
t is found in Shah Salin, Momi village, Muzhigram Gol
and Barzin valley of Chitral state; Norang and Babusar pass,
Sherwan, Haripur and Garhi Habib Ullah of Hazara district .
IRON:
Iron has been reported from Himalayan crystalline belt
(Abbottabad, Langrial and Besham).

MERCURY:
The chief ore mineral is cinnabar (HgS). It is used as
pigment, medicine and also antiseptics. Cinnabar is reported in
the sands of rivers in Chitral state (Heron 1954).

FELDSPRE:
The commercial deposits are found in Rajdhawari
pegmatite (Hazara). Many small deposits are reported from
Khaki, Doga, Trangri and Gidarpur areas of Hazara (Ahmad 1969).

OTHER MINERALS IN KPK ARE THE FOLLOWING

 China clay
 Nepheline Syenite
 Anhydrite Deposits
 Rock Phosphate
 Topaz
 Kyanite etc
ROCKS IN KPK:
The rocks in kpk are the following

LOE SHILMAN, KHYBER AGENCY:

This complex (Ahmed and Ali, 1977) is
intruded along an E-W-trending and north-dipping fault zone between
(?) Paleozoic schist’s and limestone in the north and (?) Precambrian
slates and phyllites to the south. The main intrusion, reaching 170 m in
width in the central part, extends E-W for more than 2 Km, passing
westwards into Afghanistan. Five kilometers east of this body there are
additional small outcrops, the intervening alluvium-covered area
containing isolated outcrops of met sediments with sills of carbonate.

The basic rocks are variously altered or metamorphosed and

resemble those of the Warsak area. The carbonatites are represented
by at least three phases of intrusion and contain amongst their
accessory minerals sphere, rutile, pyrochlore, Fe-Ti oxides, feldspars,
quartz, and zircon, some of which are only locally present. The rocks
comprise:

AMPHIBOLE-APATITE CARBOLZATITES:

Amphibole-apatite carbolzatites,
generally layered, with both 'pure' carbonates and mafic segregation
bands. They are composed of calcite and/or dolomite (with (?) siderite
locus magnesioriebeckite, apatite, with small amounts of dark mica (Ti-
phlogopite more often than biotitic) and aegirine-augite in some rocks.
DOLOMITIC CARBOMITE:
Dolomitic carbomite, with a distinctly
higher specific gravity than other rock types and containing, in addition
to carbonate, apatite, alkali amphibole, phlogopite, iron oxide and,
rarely, arginine. The carbonate is relatively rich in strontium and iron.
These rocks occur principally in a band along the southern margin of
the complex and as small outcrops in the first type.

BIOTITE CARBONITE:
Biotite carbonite, found as Patchy intrusions
in (a) and generally containing 20% dark mica (locally up to 45%), 45 to
75% carbonate, and small, variable amounts of alkali amphiboles and
pyroxenes, and apatite.

SYENITIC ROCK:
The syenitic rocks occur in an elongated intrusion in the
eastern part of the main outcrop but they are also found in the
easternmost body. They consist of alkali feldspars (microperthite being
the most abundant), alkali amphiboles and pyroxenes, carbonate,
apatite, Fe-oxide, sphene and, in some, a little quartz, mile, zircon, and
biotite or phlogopite, the last locally more common.

PELITIC ROCKS:
The pelitic rocks have been thrust-faulted against
calcareous and quartz tic rocks of Cambrian age (Ashraf and Chaudhry,
1977). Extensive outcrops of Malakand granites and granite gneisses
are found ten kilometers to the northeast. The carbonates are
porphyritic to sub porphyritic and consist of calcite (generally 50 to 90
% ), arfvedsonite, siderite, ilmenitelmagnetite, vermiculite, apatite,
chlorite, and K-feldspar, the minerals being unevenly distributed. The
Nb, Sr, V, Y, Zr, Sc, La, and Yr contents of three samples confirm their
carbonatitic affinity .

TEGTQNIC HISTORY:
Kempe (1973) presented a hypothetical differen
tiation scheme for the alkaline rocks, relating them the upper Swat
basic and intermediate rocks- (Jan and Kempe, 1973) and to Himalayan
tholeiitic magma. Recent interpretation of the upper Swat rocks as part
of the Kohistan Sequence an island arc mass caught up in the
Himalayan collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates, and
obducted on to the Indian plate does not invalidate the earlier
suggestion but calls for its reassessment.Alkaline rocks are commonly
associated with rifting the high heat flow so liberated has been
suggested as capable of partially melting residual magmatic and so an
alkaline liquid. ~lternatively, extreme fractionation at low pressures
could yield a similar magma [Sorensen, 1974). It is proposed here that
the Peshawar Plain is an irregular rift val& extending east-west for over
200 km, and greatly modified by Pleistocene glacial and fluvial action, of
which the Kabul and Swat Rivers alone remain. In addition to the major
thrusting, faulting occurs in association with many of the alkaline
intrusions; for example a fault lies northeast of Warsak (Ahmad et al.,
1969) and the Shihan, Malakand and Tarbela rocks are intruded along
faults. Thus a line of rifting might run from Loe Shilman to Malakand
and then continue eastwards. However, faults suggestive of doming or
flexuring, or dyke swarms, such as might be associated with rifting are
not known to the authors. Safdar Khan Kakar regarded the Peshawar
alkaline Magmatism as the result of lithospheric doming caused by
mantle plumes within a rift system. Such rifting might, perhaps, have
been assisted by 'rebound' relief tension, or compression release,
following the initial plate collision. The chronology given by Kempe
(1973) an Upper Swat hornblende pegmatite at 67 maythe Koga syenite
at 50 mile, and the Warsak alkaline granite at 41 m.y. - is consistent
with this suggestion, and also with Powell (19791, who notes that
whilst the Indian plate moved rapidly to the north at an average rate
exceeding 15 cm/year between 80 and 53m.y., a marked slowing to
between 4 and 6 occurred at about 53 m.y., coinciding with its
apparent 20" counter-cloclcwise rotation, and following initial contact
at about 55 m.y. ago between the Indian plate and either the island
arcs bordering the southern edged the Eurasian plate or its continental
margin.

THE END