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PAKISTAN

The Himalayas are the youngest mountain range in the world, and their pegmatites, which contain a variety of gemstones, are only a few million years old. This region has the greatest vertical differences found anywhere in the world as well as the world’s seven highest peaks. At Nanga Parbat, in Astore, the mountain peak is more than 20,000 feet above the valley floor. Tourmaline, aquamarine, topaz, garnet and apatite come from granitic pegmatite deposits, while emeralds, rubies and sapphires come from metamorphic and hydrothermal deposits that tend to be regional and cover a larger area.

Prospecting in a region with near vertical cliffs that rise 3,000 to 4,000 feet or higher is a nightmare. Mining a deposit in an environment like this is even worse. At such elevations, pockets are practically always frozen, internal combustion engines do not operate, the air pressure is too low for pneumatic equipment, and the mining season is generally very short.

The granitic pegmatites of these areas produce a vast assortment of gem minerals, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict in advance what their production will be like. Even though the mineralogy might dictate the presence of colored tourmaline pockets, for example, the quality of the contents may be worthless. Most gem mines are operated by hobbyists or worked by small groups of artisanal miners using the most basic methods mainly in remote places. In many locations, everything must be carried up either on horseback (or donkey) or by the miners themselves.

The mining season in the areas we visited depended on the altitude of the deposits. In some areas the work window is from June to September or October, and in others it might be from July to October. Some miners work the higher elevations in the summer and then move to the lower elevations during the winter, so they can mine year-round.

Pegmatites

The pegmatites of Chumar Bakhoor belong to a well-organized miners’ association in the village of Sumayar. This association allows 55 groups of six men each to work the pegmatites, and the money made benefits the entire village. Since these pegmatites are all found within a small area at an elevation of around 4,800 meters, the working season is from late July to sometime in October.

The pegmatite of the Bulachi area, lies between the village of Shengus and Astak on the Gilgit-Skardu road. The pegmatite swarm in this area includes deposits along the Indus river, the area around Haramosh, the Stak Nala mines, and the mines within the Astore district on the south bank of the Indus river. At Stak Nala the pegmatites are lithium rich (LCT-type) and produce multicolored tourmalines rather than black ones. It was rumored that colored tourmaline had been found somewhere in Astore district, which would indicate that more LCT-type pegmatites have been discovered.

Along the Indus river, pegmatites that are being worked are visible for about 7 km on the opposite bank of the river from the road running east from Shingus. A few workings are to be seen on the side of the river with the road, all placed so that rock will not fall on the road. These are granitic pegmatites that produce aquamarine, black tourmaline, topaz, apatite and garnet. There are reported to be hundreds of these pegmatites, many of which are located on near-vertical faces of the mountains, so that miners must rappel down on ropes to gain access. Four villages own the pegmatites on the south side of the Indus river, and some 400-500 miners have been working the area for 14–15 years.

Another mining site we visited was at the base of Haramosh near the village of Shah Toot. Here the pegmatites are spread out so that few workings are visible from the village. The only workings we were allowed to see consisted of a shallow open pit in a vertical pegmatite. Unlike the other workings we visited, this dump showed no sign that pockets had ever been found there, although the locals said the small hole had yielded 1.5 million Pakistani rupees worth of goods (about $25,000). They said there are more than 200 mines in their region, and they have been working them for about 20 years.

Due to global warming, the glaciers in the area have been receding and exposing more areas for prospecting. Our guide from Shah Toot told us the Mani glacier has receded several miles and exposed new sites high up in the mountains. I believe these pegmatites are part of the same Bulachi pegmatite swarm, but the frequency of the pegmatites is far lower at Haramosh.

The mines of Stak Nala are supposed to belong to the village of Tookla, but the locals say that many outsiders dig there. These are LCT-type granitic pegmatites that produce tri-colored tourmaline, a highly valuable mineral. The locals say there are 40 mines in the area. The Gemstone Corporation of Pakistan (GCP) worked Stak Nala systematically in the 1980s, and when it left it blasted the tunnels it had used closed. Only one is open today, presumably reopened by the local miners. They say they would like to work the tunnel, but more of it caves in each time they blast. I suggested building rock walls to shore up the walls, which appear to be highly fractured due to past over-blasting by the GCP.

The pegmatite swarm of the Shingar, Braldu and Basha valleys, unlike that at Chumar Bahkoor, is spread out over an area of about 150 square km. There are no trails leading to producing areas, only to isolated pegmatites or mines. The morning we awoke in Dassu, we could hear blasts from mining all over the mountains on both sides of the river, starting at 6: 30 am and lasting all day.

Mining dumps rise from the river level to the top of the mountains, some 3,000 meters overhead. Some mines appear to be holes in the mountainside without dumps, since the slope is nearly vertical. We talked with officials of the Baltistan Gem and Mineral Association in Skardu, who are trying to organize the miners in these valleys. The association took a survey in 2003 and found that 4,500 households are involved in mining in this region. Each household has from three to 10 people involved directly in mining, so this area has the largest number of miners of any we visited.

It was rumored that colored tourmaline had recently been discovered somewhere in the mountains around Dassu. One mine we saw had flawless quartz and topaz in the dumps, as well as pocket feldspar and micas. We had a group meeting with miners in Dassu, who said that there are 200 groups of men working there year-round, some in tunnels 150 to 180 meters deep. In these longer tunnels they blast once and then quit for the day, letting the tunnel air out overnight. To the west of the Braldu valley lies the Basha valley. This is the western portion of the same pegmatite swarm. There are fewer deposits than to the east in the Braldu valley. Near the village of Sibibi, we were shown a working pegmatite which required a rope to reach.

Health, safety and the environment

According to the Pakistani government, none of the country’s mineral-producing areas have ever enjoyed modern mining equipment, safety standards or the expertise of mining engineers. Currently, most Pakistani miners use Chinese-made, gasoline-powered rock drills both on the surface and underground. There is no ventilation, and miners say they only stop work when they can no longer light a fuse due to either a lack of oxygen or air pollution. All of the approximately 40,000 miners in northern Pakistan complain of lung problems from both silicosis and carbon monoxide poisoning. However, the leading causes of death in this extreme environment are being buried under rock falls or falling from a perch on a sheer cliff face.

The ruby deposits of the Hunza valley and other lower elevation deposits can be worked with pneumatic equipment, thus eliminating the dust and carbon monoxide problems. But in the Bulachi area pegmatites and those of the Shingar, Basha and Braldu valleys, the miners are stuck using the gasoline-powered drills due to the extreme inaccessibility of the deposits and/or the elevation. Miners literally hang from ropes on near-vertical cliff faces and use the gasoline-powered drills while dodging falling rocks.

I do not believe that the impoverished miners will ever stop mining and wait for the necessary improvements. But some things could be done immediately. Disposable dust masks are necessary, but are not available in the region. Large quantities should be on hand for quick and easy replacement, otherwise the miners will try to reuse the old contaminated filters.

Conventional ventilation systems do not work in this mining environment. A machine that is lightweight, easily transportable and repairable, human-powered and can be produced in Pakistan could be easily designed. This machine should be able to push air at least 90 meters, with an ideal capacity of 150 meters. To alleviate the carbon monoxide poisoning problem, a standard 7.5 meter extension should be added to the drills’ exhaust port that would carry the fumes away from the operator.

Drilling and blasting techniques also must be improved. I was told that the miners drill one to three holes in a round to be blasted and are lucky if they make 30 cm of tunnel a day. The holes are no deeper than 45 cm, and the miners use a petrol drill suitable for drilling vertical holes, not horizontal ones. They need to drill more horizontally and use a drilling pattern to improve breakage and do less damage to any pocket in the vicinity. People should also be trained in basic first aid for emergencies, as well as extreme mountain climbing techniques. Mountain climbing equipment should be made available to the miners.

Gemstones for the benefit of local residents

The government of Pakistan would like to lease all its gem deposits to corporations and take the production out of the hands of the locals. Regional deposits are believed to be suitable for corporations, but the pegmatitic deposits should remain in the hands of the local villagers who currently operate these mostly inaccessible and unpredictable deposits. In some areas, there were well-organized miners’ associations, while in others there was little organization, and in still others the locals had no idea what was being mined in their own backyard.

Each mining area should create its own miners’ association which must be able to respond with rescue teams to dig out miners trapped by cave-ins or other disasters, and transport them to hospital. They could also be distributors of personal protective equipment like replacement dust masks, that would serve as the point for miners to sell their goods to the brokers, thus improving their profit or income opportunities.

For example, Sumayar village needs a common selling place where miners could deposit their specimens and brokers and buyers could view and buy them. Having an auction once a year near the end of the mining season pitting one broker against another would help improve local price levels. Whatever doesn’t sell would go to the Sumayar mineral store where specimens and gems could be negotiated, at reasonable prices, by visiting dealers and buyers on a “cash and carry” basis instead of a promise to pay great sums later.

AFGHANISTAN

Gem resources in Afghanistan
There are four main gemstone producing areas: the Panjshir
Valley producing emeralds, the Jegdalek area producing rubies
and a range of fancy coloured and blue sapphires, Badakhshan
producing the world-famous and most recognised of Afghan
gems, lapis lazuli, and Nuristan producing a wide range of
semi-precious gems such as tourmaline, kunzite, aquamarine,
spodumene and beryl.
Emeralds
Emeralds, a saturated green and most precious form of beryl,
are found in the Panjshir Valley (known as the ‘Five Lions
Valley’) in Parwan Province. The deposit is thought to have
been discovered in the early 1970s by a young shepherd.
However, this may be the deposit referred to in Pliny’s
‘Natural History’, written in the first century AD, as
smaragdus (green stones) from Bactria.
Rocks bearing emeralds occur in the Panjshir Valley at
elevations of 3000–4000 m in an area 16 km long by 3 km
wide. They are found in quartz-ankerite veins cutting altered
gabbro. The emeralds are a rich green colour and occur in
crystals up to 100 carats in weight whose clarity often rivals
the more famous Columbian emeralds. Gem quality crystals
are up to 10 mm to 15 mm long, 2–3 mm thick, and very
rarely up to 50 mm long and 2 mm wide. Estimates of
current production are speculative, but before the civil war
production was said to be in the US $ 8–10 million range
(UNDP 2005).
 

Ruby
Ruby, known as the ‘King of Precious Stones’, is a precious
gemstone form of corundum. Rubies are mined at Jegdalek-
Gandamak in Kabul Province (Figures 3 and 5)
where they occur in a Proterozoic
calcite-dolomite marble bed
500 to 2000 m thick within a regionally metamorphosed
marble cut by Oligocene granitic intrusions. The Jegdalek
mines were worked in 1637 for marble used to build the Taj
Mahal, but it is uncertain whether they were mined for
rubies at that time. The Jegdalek rubies range from nearly
colourless to deep red and purplish red, and display strong
fluorescence in ultraviolet radiation. True rubies form 15 %
of the production at Jegdalek, along with pink sapphires (75
%) and blue sapphire (5 %), the remaining 5 % consists of
mixed blue and red-to-pink corundum (Bowersox, 1990).
Clean faceting quality rubies are rare, but those that are
found are of excellent quality and are said to match
those from the very best source of
rubies in the world.

Lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan in the north of the country is
still regarded as the world’s premier source in terms of quantity
and quality. Its name is derived from the Latin ‘lapis’, meaning
‘stone’ and the Persian ‘lazhward’ meaning ‘blue’. It is used to
make beads, boxes and other decorative articles, is often carved
into figurines and is popular for men’s jewellery.
Lapis lazuli rock is composed of the feldspathoid minerals
lazurite, hauyne, nosean and sodalite, with other minerals
including calcite and pyrite and lesser amounts of diopside,
amphibole, feldspar, mica and other silicates.
Lapis is mined in an area known as the ‘Blue Mountain’ on
the right bank of the Kokcha River in Badakhshan where it
occurs as skarn lenses 1–4 m thick in marble. There were
formerly seven mines extracting lapis lazuli but today there
is only one, the Sary-Sang deposit (Figure 6). The mine lies
at an elevation of around 3500 m where, on account of
low winter temperatures, it is worked only between
June and September. Accurate production figures
are not available but an estimate is 9000 kg
per year. A speculative estimate of the
reserves is 1300 tonnes.
Semi-precious gems from Nuristan
Nuristan is a region on the eastern
side of Afghanistan bordering
Pakistan and with high
mountains incised by
numerous steep-sided
valleys. The region is
notable for pegmatites, a late-stage crystallisation from molten
rock, comprising one of the largest pegmatite fields in the
world which hosts a wide variety of minerals and gems
commonly of exceptional size and quality.
Gem-quality tourmalines up to 150 mm long and 40 mm
wide occur in a wide range of colours. Pink is common
though pale blue, indigo blue (indicolite), green, and emerald
green are found. In addition, rare bi-coloured stones of greenpink
and blue-green are much sought after. The crystals are
beautifully formed, elongate with a distinctive ‘rounded
triangular’ cross-section.

 

Kunzite
Afghanistan is a major world supplier of spodumene,
especially the well-known pink variety kunzite. Along with
other varieties of spodumene, kunzite locally occurs in crystals
of great size. These are prismatic and stout, and specimens
one metre in length have been found, though generally they
range from 30 to 400 mm. Spodumene is found in a number
of colour varieties including pink, violet, green (hiddenite),
blue, colourless and yellowish-green. Well-cut and high clarity
stones with more saturated colours command the best prices
and are highly sought after.

Aquamarine
Aquamarine, a name derived from the Latin for ‘sea water’, is
a light blue-greenish variety of beryl that has been mined near
the village of Konar in Nuristan since the mid 1980s. Mined
from a pegmatite, it occurs in crystals up to 75 mm long,
which are often of very clear gem quality. Much larger nongem
quality crystals can be found also. A rarer pale pink to
deep rose variety of beryl called morganite has been mined in
small quantities at Mawi in Nuristan.

Tourmaline

Tourmaline appears in pegmatites veins of mountains in the regions of Laghman-Kunar region of Afghanistan. Tourmalines come in various colours like green, yellow, blues, pink, bicolours and many other shades of colours. Some of the blue Tourmalines from this region in Afghanistan resemble the Paraiba blues of South America. The bicolor Tourmalines are from Paprok mines of this region. Afghanistan tourmalines are world renowned for their strong colours and sizes. They are more superior to the African Tourmalines.

Other gem and mineral occurrences
Blue sapphire has recently been reported from Wardak
Province west of Kabul. Cut stones over two carats are known
though not in any great quantity.
A range of garnets is known to occur. For example spessartite
garnet is known at Pachighram in Nangahar province, and
dark red almandines also from Pachighram are widespread in
Proterozoic schists. In 2002, dealers reported spessartites from
mines in pegmatite at Darre Pech in Kunar where they are
extracted along with kunzite. They are yellow-orange in
colour and stones up to 1.68 carats in weight are reported.
Another variety from the same locality is orange-red to dark
red almandine-spessartites up to 1.28 carats in weight.
Since 2002 Afghanistan has become a significant source of
gem-quality hessonite (grossular garnet) from Munjagal in
Kunar Province and Kantiwow in Nuristan Province. The
hessonite varies from yellowish orange to red-orange, and the
combined production from these localities is 7000 kg/year.
Kandahar fluorite is a well-known collector’s
gemstone that comes in a range of colours. Particularly attractive
and sought after are the blue and sea-green varieties.