Rocks that built an economy

Produces (with the Wargal Limestone) in the Dhurnal field.

Hosts stratabound lead-zinc mineralization of the Khuzdar belt in the upper part of the Jurassic Shirinab succession: the Gunga deposit (~6% Zn, 1.5% Pb; SEDEX-type) and the nearby Surmai deposit (Mississippi-Valley-type, ~6.5% combined, with 10-20 g/t Ag) — an important Zn-Pb-Ag resource (Malkani 2020).

The largest rock-salt (halite) resource of the Kohat Basin and a principal salt-mining source in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Bahadur Khel-Karak salt mines).

The principal coal-bearing horizon of the Sindh (Lower Indus) coalfields, including the Lakhra, Sonda and Thar areas.

Contains alabaster (gypsum) beds.

The serpentinized ultramafics host chromite (with associated manganese), in the Bela ophiolite belt.

Gemstone potential (emeralds in associated rocks)

Raw material for cement; mined in the lowest beds exposed east of the Hattar Cement Factory.

Hosts coal (Toi Formation) and gypsum (Baska Formation); the Ghazij shales form a regional seal.

Source of gravel and sand for construction aggregate.

Phosphorite (rock phosphate) has been reported from the Chichali Formation near Kohat, but low phosphate content makes it of little economic value.

Platinum group element potential

A significant Middle Jurassic hydrocarbon reservoir of the Indus Basin (e.g. Zarghun South gas); its top unconformity hosts the Dilband oolitic iron ore.

Oligocene-Miocene coal lenses and showings (Khandor, Vihowa Rud); prospective for ochre / iron.

One of the main dolomite-bearing units of the foreland fold-and-thrust belt; its partly dolomitised limestone carries a bituminous (hydrocarbon) odour and the unit is significant in Potwar petroleum geology.

Source of gravel and sand for construction aggregate.

Good source rock (dark-grey shales with coaly partings); well-sorted siltstone/sandstone may form local reservoirs; flowed oil (Tobra–Dandot/Warcha) in the Adhi field.

Hosts talc (soapstone) along fracture zones and mafic-intrusion contacts, and silver-rich lead-copper mineralisation in the western Spinghar (Neemtota).

Source of refractory fire clay and coal; the 'Datta Sands' are an important gas/condensate reservoir in the Upper Indus Basin.

Hosts the Dilband iron-ore deposit — Pakistan's largest — oolitic hematite at the top-Chiltan unconformity grading about 52–62% iron oxide.

Hosts Late Eocene coal (Rakhni, Nisau, Mahoi, Zain and Rakhi Munh areas) and a laterally extensive gypsum bed; celestite occurs just below the Domanda gypsum in the southern Sulaiman Foldbelt.

Hosts celestite (strontium sulphate) nodules in the northern Sulaiman Range.

Paleontological heritage - whale evolution

The Paleocene Dungan Limestone is a regional hydrocarbon reservoir in the Sulaiman fields.

The Pirkoh and Habib Rahi limestones are gas reservoirs; the Drazinda Shale yields celestite.

Building-limestone source.

The Pab Sandstone is a significant gas reservoir.

Hosts the principal Eocene coal deposits of Pakistan, worked in the Mach, Sor Range, Sharigh, Pir Ismail Ziarat and Johan coal fields of Balochistan.

The Lower Goru sands are a major gas reservoir of the Lower and Central Indus Basin (e.g. Sui, Mari, Sawan, Miano).

Forms part of the productive Eocene clastic reservoir intervals of the Kohat sub-basin.

An Eocene limestone reservoir unit of the Sulaiman gas province.

Hosts the economically important Makarwal coal seams in its lower part; laterite–bauxite also occurs at its basal unconformity (Chhoi–Akhori).

Phosphorite (rock phosphate) of the basal Cambrian beds of the Hazara–Abbottabad area; the Kakul/Hazira phosphate is one of Pakistan's principal phosphate sources.

Hosts the famous Hunza ruby (corundum) deposits and other gemstones.

A recognised potential hydrocarbon SOURCE ROCK of the Makran; thrust detachments root within this mud-rich interval, and hanging-wall anticlines form potential traps.

Source of bauxite and laterite in the Kotli area of Azad Kashmir.

A major gypsum/anhydrite resource of the Kohat Basin, quarried for cement and plaster.

Hosts the Jiwani sulphur deposit — a thin (~9 in), discontinuous sulphur layer in dark clay near a mud volcano ~20 km NW of Jiwani, grading ~43-56% S (a small deposit), with similar minor occurrences at Ganz and Karghari — and its coastal shelly limestone, sandstone and conglomerate are worked locally as construction/building stone (Malkani 2020).

The Jatta Gypsum is a major gypsum resource; the Habib Rahi and Pirkoh limestones are gas reservoirs.

Phosphorite occurs in the Kawagarh Formation near Chhoi in the Kalachitta Range, but is of little economic value owing to its low phosphate content.

Dimension stone, aquifer

Gypsum deposits

Locally carbonaceous, with lenses of lignite.

Hosts Early Eocene coal; a source of silica sand and building sandstone.

Source of building stone and aggregate

A major Eocene limestone, used locally as building and cement stone and forming reservoir intervals.

Sulfur deposits, geothermal potential

A local source of gypsum on the Potwar Plateau, mainly satisfying nearby agricultural needs rather than yielding the large, pure bodies of the Salt Range Formation.

Petroleum reservoir, cement raw material

Quarried as cement rock in the shingled-thrust zone north of the Potwar Plateau; the formation also carries some coal seams, bauxite and clays.

The Jurassic Loralai Limestone hosts fluorite veins (Gadebar and Daman Ghar ranges, Loralai district) along faults and fractures; a building-limestone source.

The unconformity at the top of the Lumshiwal Formation (beneath the Paleocene Hangu Formation) hosts the Chhoi–Akhori laterite–bauxite deposits of the Kalachitta Hills.

Fractured carbonate hydrocarbon reservoir and outcrop analogue in the Kala Chitta-Margalla-Hazara petroleum province; also one of the principal cement-rock (limestone) sources of the Potwar Plateau area, quarried in large quantity where close to markets or rail lines (Drewes and others, 2007); used locally as building and aggregate stone.

Contains the Sembar source rock and Lower Goru reservoir — the core of the Indus Basin petroleum system.

Petroleum seeps (Mughal Kot); prospective for uranium; a building-sandstone source.

Major chromite deposits, nickel potential, asbestos

Dimension stone quarrying

Contains workable coal seams (Nari coal) and forms reservoir intervals.

The Warchha Sandstone is a dimension/building stone; the group carries Gondwana fire-clay and coal locally.

A major quartzose-sandstone hydrocarbon reservoir in the Lower Indus Basin.

The principal potential RESERVOIR unit of the Makran; its stacked turbidite sandstones have porosities up to ~18% and form exploration targets, with Hoshab/Parkini shales as source and seal.

Part of the salt-and-gypsum-bearing Eocene succession of the Kohat Plateau; it grades southward into the Bahadur Khel Salt and is itself gypsiferous.

Building-limestone source; the Ziarat laterite (ochre pigment) forms on its weathered contact with the Dungan Limestone (Kach-Sanjawi).

A recognised potential hydrocarbon SOURCE ROCK of the Makran (slope-to-basinal mudstone, TOC locally exceeding 1%).

Coal-bearing in the Salt Range (Patala coal) and an important hydrocarbon source rock of the Upper Indus Basin.

Controls gas field locations in Lower Sindh

The Pirkoh Limestone is a significant gas reservoir (Pirkoh gas field).

Glauconitic and hematitic sandstone (Gorge beds) with anomalous iron (14-21%) and probable potash; prospective for uranium; thin aragonite in associated shale.

Includes the coal-bearing Bara Formation — the principal Sindh (Lower Indus) coalfields.

A wall-rock unit of the Saindak porphyry copper–gold deposit; the surrounding Chagai magmatic arc hosts world-class porphyry Cu–Au–(Mo) systems including the giant Reko Diq deposit (~5.9 Gt at ~0.41% Cu plus gold) and the Saindak mine.

Cement raw material and construction aggregate; fractured carbonate reservoir and outcrop analogue in the Potwar-Salt Range petroleum system.

Major source of rock salt (Khewra Salt Mine), gypsum, and potential oil shales

A widespread Jurassic carbonate reservoir target in the Upper Indus Basin; also quarried for aggregate and cement raw material.

Building limestone and sandstone; prospective for uranium.

Gypsum-bearing (worked locally, chiefly for agricultural use) and — with the Warchha Sandstone — a sedimentary host of the sub-economic 'speckled sandstone' base-metal shows near Sanwans and Ghundi in the Mianwali area, where copper and tin minerals occur in sandy shale beds. Concentrations are low and erratically distributed; potential rated low.

Controls petroleum migration pathways in Punjab Platform

The principal hydrocarbon SOURCE ROCK of the Lower and Central Indus Basin (Sui, Mari and other gas fields); the Sembar–Lower Goru is an active petroleum system.

Thin aragonite beds (Rakhni, Sham, Kulchas, Phailawagh and other Dera Bugti areas).

A source of cement rock — the Precambrian Shekhai Limestone is quarried, for example, at the Cherat lime plant about 30 km southeast of Peshawar.

Studied as a fractured carbonate reservoir target in the Kohat Basin; spatially associated with the Bahadurkhel (Kohat) evaporite system.

A premium soapstone (talc/steatite) source — the dolostone-hosted talc bodies are actively mined in the Sherwan area of Abbottabad (e.g. the Khandakhu Mine). Trace chromium levels bear on the industrial grade of the soapstone (Majeed et al. 2025).

Basal beds and part of the Shinawari are believed to be fair source rocks of the Jurassic in the Upper Indus Basin.

Dark Loralai and Anjira members indicate source-rock richness (need TOC/maturity testing).

The principal host rock of the Makran-Siahan fault-controlled epithermal-to-mesothermal stibnite (antimony)-gold-silver quartz-carbonate vein system (e.g. Gokumb, Kuchaki, Mir Baig Raidgi, Safed Gilanchi, Machi Koh) and of extensive iron-oxidized zones; also the setting of the Soro/Phudkush possible-meteorite locality. Veins are thin (mm-20 cm) and discontinuous, so individual deposits are small (Malkani 2020).

One of the sedimentary/volcanic wall-rock units that host the Chagai porphyry copper deposits (Saindak, Reko Diq).

Major gas reservoir at the Sui, Kandhkot and related fields; named by PPL. Subsurface type section at Sui.

The Chiltan Limestone is a gas reservoir; the Dilband Formation hosts Pakistan's largest iron-ore deposit.

The Datta Formation is Pakistan's main source of refractory fire-clay and glass/silica sand; the Samana Suk Limestone is a building stone.

A potential shallow RESERVOIR unit of the Makran, with stacked sandstones above the deeper turbidite reservoirs.

Local reservoir (primary + dissolution porosity; fractured sandstones); flowed oil in the Adhi field. Typical Rw ~0.04 ohm-m, salinity ~85,000 ppm NaCl. Top Tobra is a strong, laterally continuous seismic reflector in East Potwar.

Contains locally developed coal seams.

Oligocene-Miocene coal showings; part of the uranium- and silica-sand-bearing Vihowa Group.

Clay deposits; primary and secondary uranium mineralization; silica sand (Zinda Pir, Dera Bugti); ochre / iron; building sandstone and construction aggregate.

Hosts the Kingri coalfield (latest Cretaceous / K-T-boundary lignite, ~2 million tons, Musa Khel district); a source of building sandstone; prospective for uranium and aluminous (bauxitic) rocks.

Identified as a potential petroleum source/reservoir carbonate in the Makran if it has significant subsurface extent.

The arkosic 'speckled sandstone' hosts sub-economic sedimentary copper, lead and tin shows northeast of Mianwali and north of Nilawahan Gorge — copper as chalcopyrite and malachite, tin as stannite, cassiterite and native tin — and carries local poor-quality coal seams. Preliminary trench sampling (~300 samples in 15 trenches; Gilani 1981) was not encouraging and base-metal potential is rated low.

Cement raw material, building stone

Part of the frontier Triassic–Jurassic carbonate petroleum play of the Sulaiman Fold-Thrust Belt; dolomitization of the Wulgai Formation carbonates has locally produced secondary porosity.

The Productus limestones are used for cement and building stone.