Cenozoic • Paleogene formation GSP memoir

Mina Formation

Eocene

Balochistan Basin · Kakar-Khurasan Basin

Part of Shagala Group

Paleogene in the time scale →

Cited in 2 sources Last reviewed Jul 17, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Cenozoic · Paleogene · EoceneEocene
Named by: Malkani (2014)
Type locality: Mina village, Shagala–Zhob road
Thickness: about 2000m
Lithology: Marine alternating green shale and fine-grained sandstone.
Synonyms: Panjgur Formation (in part)

An Eocene green shale-and-sandstone flysch of northern Balochistan, equivalent to the Makran Panjgur Formation.

Mina Formation (previous Panjgur formation and lower part of Shagala formation in northern Balochistan) is named by Malkani (2014c) after the Mina village on the Shagala-Zhob road which is about 30Km southwest of Zhob. It consists of marine alternating green shale and sandstone. The sandstone is fine to coarse grained, gritty, thin to thick bedded, grey to greenish grey and weathers light grey and at places black desert varnish on its surface. It is about 2000m thick in the northern Balochistan Basin and 1000-2000m thick in the area between the Khwaja Amran Range and Jangal. This formation shows the marine conditions in all Balochistan basins. Its upper contact with Continental Shagala formation is disconfirmable while lower contact with Murgha Faqirzai shale is confirmable. Its age is Early Eocene.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Zhob-Muslim Bagh column

SandstoneLimestoneShale / mudFossils recordedConformable

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type. True scale makes height ∝ recorded thickness; hatched = thickness not recorded. Ages approximate, for ordering.

This unit (highlighted) within its province column; faded ends continue above and below. Line style marks the contact type.

Distribution & setting

Zhob-Muslim Bagh

Basin: Balochistan Basin
Region: Kakar-Khurasan Basin
Depositional environment: marine, deep marine
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

An Eocene flysch sandstone-shale unit of the Kakar-Khurasan basin, the northern correlative of the Makran Panjgur Formation.

Sources (2)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
Malkani, M.S. (2020). Revised Stratigraphy and Mineral Resources of Balochistan Basin, Pakistan: An Update. Open Journal of Geology, 10, 784-828.

Reviewer confidence: medium

Every fact on this page is source-cited. This entry is part of the peer-archived Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset (doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991, CC‑BY‑4.0).

Lexicon status: Appears in a single-author Geological Survey of Pakistan memoir (Malkani & Mahmood 2017), not cross-confirmed against the Shah lexicon. The Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan is largely inactive, so documented provenance — not formal ratification — is the available signal.

Cite this unit

APA

Qudsi, L. (2026). Mina Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_minaformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Mina Formation} --- Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.21363991},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991}
}

Archived dataset: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991 (CC‑BY‑4.0) · Direct link to this entry: https://stratigraphy.pk/formation/mina-formation (accessed August 30, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Malkani (2014).

Below · older

Murgha Faqirzai Formation

Paleogene

Above · younger

Shagala Formation