Mud Volcanoes of Balochistan

Pakistan's Balochistan province is gifted with a diverse landscape. Among many geological wonders here, one big attraction is the presence of 18 mud volcanoes. Infact world's largest and highest known mud volcano is located in Balochistan. The altitiude of highest mud volcano here is 300 ft. The mud volcanoes of Balochistan are not only located on the land but from time to time they appear as small temporary islands in the Arabian Sea also.

To reach the most famous group of these mud volcanoes, one has to travel west of Karachi on the Makran Coastal Highway (N10). One has to drive upto a place called Aghor located at the delta of Hungol River. 7 mud volcanoes are located few kilometers North East of Aghor. 11 mud volcanoes are located further west between Kutch and Gwadar.



There are two known groups of mud volcanoes here. One is called 'Chandargup' and other is called 'Jabl-ul-Ghurab'. Very close to Chandargup is an ancient Hindu temple called 'Hinglaj temple' or 'Nani Temple'. Due to close proximity of the mud volcano to a Hindu temple, it is very likely that the word Chandargup is actually derived from the word 'Chandargupt'. Another word which locally mentions this group of volcanoes is 'Chandra coop' which means Volcanoes of the Moon.

It is said that mud volcanoes have roots that go several kilometers underground and act as safety valves for high underground pressure.



The earliest account of the presence of mud volcanoes in Balochistan dates back to 1840. In 1862 Major (later Sir) Frederick John Goldsmid was employed by the Governer of Bombay for special missions. One such mission was a foray into Makran lasting from December 12, 1861 to January 1862. Goldsmid and his party commenced their journey overland from Karachi and wrote a diary of their travels upto Gwadar. This travelogue writes about the mud volcanoes, which gives the first detailed account of their existence. In his journal Goldsmid writes about passing through bubbling springs near Ras Koocheri, taking detours to see ancient Hindu temples of Hinglaj and the mud volcanoes near Ormara. The Hindus worship these mud volcanoes as the habitation of a deity Babhaknath.



It is reported that during the infamous 8.1 intensity earthquake of Balochistan which occured on May 31, 1935 a mud volcano erupted Northwest of Quetta, near the town of Surab and kept spewing out mud for 9 hours continuously.

It is also reported that on November 28, 1945 an earthquake of 7.8 intensity occured in Arabian Sea off the coast of Makran. The earthquake caused a tsunami with a wave reaching as high as 13m at some places. This tsunami killed 4000 people off the coast of Arabian Sea in Sindh and Baluchistan. Widespread destruction was reported in the towns of Pasni and Ormara.




A village called Khaddi got completely wiped off the face of earth with no survivors. Even in Karachi, waves rose several feet through Clifton and Gizri. Sea water entered the compounds of oil storage facilities at Kimari harbor in Karachi. The underwater cable link which existed in 1945 between Karachi and Muscat was interrupted. The Cape Monze lighthouse, 72 km from Karachi, was damaged. The quake was also strongly felt at Manora Island near Karachi Harbour. The 94–feet–high lighthouse on Manora was damaged and a couple of pounds of mercury spilt.

This earthquake shook and vented the mud volcanoes of Hungol so much that the gases coming out of this volcanoes got ignited and flames rose several hundred feet in the air.



The news of fiery volcanoes erupting in Balochistan (1945) spread across India. There were also reports from RAF aircraft flying in from the west of volcanic eruptions in Lasbela State in Balochistan. So one Peter Martin–Kaye who was stationed at Korangi Creek Royal Air Force Flying Boat base and his friend Peter Woolf, who was also stationed at the Korangi Creek base, took two weeks leave from the base commander and set off on the 2nd of December, 1945 on an expedition along the Makran Coast on camels provided by the Wazir of Lasbela State to check out what had happened when the earthquake and tsunami struck. On reaching the location of three active mud volcanoes (which they called Chandragup, Ranagup and Rajagup), concluded that the quake had released a quantity of gas at that location which had ignited in a fiery eruption giving rise to the stories of volcanic eruptions.



Another account of these eruption come from V.P. Sondhi, who in 1947 also wrote in about the same volcanic phenomenon in the area near the mouth of the Hungol River in Baluchistan following the 1945 quake. According to Sondhi, the self-igniting plume of gas had erupted:
“with such great force that the flames leaped thousands of feet high into the sky”.

V.P. Sondhi also documented the emergence of three mud volcano islands in the Arabian Sea just off the coast of Makran. These off shore mud volcanoes didn't live long and the strong wave action of Arabian Sea dissolved the muddy islands within months. By the end of 1946 these mud volcanoes were completely gone.

The geological research says that the mud volcanoes emerging out of Arabian Sea are made from highly viscous mud with high gas content. The mud gets driven up by high buoyancy forces and over time, a high mud ridge or mountain forms out of the water.

A scientist named G. Delisle had described in 2002 the emergence of a new mud volcano island in March 1999 at about the same place, this time apparently not accompanied by an earthquake, but it was also destroyed by wave action a few months later.



Mud volcanoes are generally not considered to be dangerous. In some countries like Azerbaijan which has the largest concentration of mud volcanoes in the world, the gas eruptions from mud volcanoes are more frequent and violent than those in Pakistan, they are actually a tourist attraction. Should Pakistan do the same?

With the opening of N10 - Makran Coastal Highway in 2004, mud volcanoes of Balochistan are now within few hours reach from Karachi. The convenience of a world class highway is also bringing a constant stream of 'city slickers' to this once remote area. People are now climbing onto these sandy volcanoes in large numbers. Some preservation should be provided to these natural wonders otherwise the onslaught of tourist will deface the natural beauty.

Tourism should be allowed but within safe distance of these sandy monuments. I also recommend a visit to these volcanoes and not to mention the joy of travel on scenic Coastal Highway, which deserves a full post on its scenic route alone.

COURTESY TO OWAIS MUGHAL

Balochistan halts $3.5bn copper project

Local authorities in Pakistan have canceled an agreement with an Australian company for the exploration of copper and gold in the Reko Diq area in southwestern Balochistan province at a time when a feasibility study for the project was near completion.

Australia's Tethyan Copper Company (TCC), a joint venture between Canada's Barrick Gold and Chile's Antofagasta Plc, had an exploration license for the copper mine at Reko Diq, which has an estimated four billion tonnes of low-grade copper and gold, in the district of Chagai.

Last month, when the Balochistan government passed a motion to terminate the contract with TCC, it called the move a step towards getting control over provincial resources in accordance with the wishes of the people. Critics said the local government's action was politically motivated to appease Baloch nationalists in the desperately poor and insurgency-hit province, who have been demanding the cancelation of the agreement.

The deal was signed under the government of former president Pervez Musharraf. The present central coalition government led by the Pakistan People's Party is trying to end the insurgency and recently presented a "Balochistan Package", which recommends a series of constitutional reforms, economic measures and administrative steps to assuage the feelings of the Baloch people.

Balochistan chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani said TCC had violated its contract, which had been signed only for exploring for minerals, according to the Dawn newspaper. The federal government had not yet sought any explanation from the Balochistan government over the cancellation of deal, the report cited Raisani as saying. The provincial cabinet decision relates to the termination of the exploration contract after it expired, while the fate of the company's proposal for a mining agreement is yet to be decided, according to the chief minister.

Tethyan, which had a 75% interest in the project, allegedly introduced unnecessary delays and exceeded the limits of the contract, which was awarded only for drilling purposes. The provincial government, which has decided not to lease out the land to TCC for further work, is believed to be looking for other investors and technical expertise to manage the project indigenously.

TCC sees the contract cancelation as a violation of internationally accepted exploration rules, under which the exploration company gets the first rights to mining in the project area, as no mining firm can invest billions of dollars only in exploration.

The United States has urged the central and provincial governments to stand behind their agreements with international companies, as the cancelation of the Reko Diq copper contract, involving two major international mining firms threatens to cost the country a loss of US$3.5 billion in investment for one of its least developed regions.

"Multinational corporations will not invest in a country where deals are canceled," a Business Recorder report last Thursday quoted the US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, as saying.

Some analysts believe the Reko Diq mine may now be developed with the help of China, which is engaged in extracting copper from the Saindak mine in the same district. They also warn that the government should learn from its experience at Saindak. Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC), which acquired Saindak on a 10-year lease in September 2002, is overmining in the area at the cost of the mine's estimated life of 19 years, say local experts. They also point out that copper extraction creates various toxic wastes, but there is still no reliable data available on the production and environmental impact at Saindak.

Reko Diq, with an estimated life span of more than 50 years, is four times larger in copper ore tonnage than Saindak.

The provincial government has handed over affairs of the Reko Diq project to the provincial department of mines and mineral development, which has acquired the services of Samar Mubarakmand, an eminent Pakistani nuclear scientist.

TCC has been criticized for selling its interests to Antofagasta and Barrick without the permission of the Balochistan government, which holds the remaining 25% interest. Barrick's share price in New York has declined from a one-year high of just below $48 on December 1 to $41.43 last week, after recovering from about $38 on December 17. Antofagasta is trading at 1,024 pence in London, close to its one-year high and more than double its price of a year ago.

Analysts also question why, if the provincial government had some grievance against TCC's operations, it did not react earlier when the company declared in July that it would invest $3 billion in the project in the current fiscal year, which ends in June.

The cancelation is "a non-routine solution", said Sardar Shaukat Popalzai, president of the Balochistan Economic Forum, according to The Nation daily newspaper. The relevant departments and political leadership should not take unwarranted decisions after projects are considered and then initiated after all clearances are granted on their merits, he said. Popalzai has reportedly suggested that a provincial assembly committee, along with a sub-committee consisting of local stakeholders, including the investors, should be formed to remove all irritants.

TCC itself has "not yet received any cancelation notice for the Reko Diq project from the government", Samia Ali Shah, the company's public relations manager, told Asia Times Online. "We will decide our strategy as soon as we receive notification from the Balochistan government."

She said, "Tethyan is currently undertaking a feasibility study, which is in its final stages, for development of the Reko Diq mine."

Feasibility studies include engineering analysis and studies of infrastructure alternatives involving the likes of rail, road, power, port and water supplies and overall technical and economical viability. "The environmental and social impact assessment [ESIA] of the project is also expected to finish at the end of the first quarter of this calendar year."

The Balochistan government first signed a contract for the Reko Diq exploration area with BHP Minerals in July 1993 and established a joint venture with BHP Billiton in June 2000, with the government keeping a 25% interest against BHP's 75%. TCC, which holds an alliance with BHP Billiton, raised funds for the project by floating its shares on the Australian Stock Exchange and planned to start the project in 2003 with an investment of $130 million.

Samia said her company was responsible for progress made since 2006, when Antofagasta and Barrick Gold took complete control of TCC, which is now a joint-venture company.

She said, "We have so far made significant progress. We had only 50 people as employees of the project in 2006 when Barrick Gold and Antofagasta took over the project. The number of our permanent employees presently exceeds 200.

"We spent $100 million, including expenditures on the feasibility study in 2008. An additional 146,000 meters were drilled last year and showed significantly large resource estimates at Reko Diq. The infrastructure developed at the exploration and feasibility stage of the project includes an airstrip and high-standard camp site facilities."

Samia said a large part of the promised investment of $3 billion would start coming as soon as the project entered the construction phase, after completion of the feasibility report and signing of agreements with the government.

Balochistan, the country's least-developed province but a prospective metaphorical and literal gold mine for companies eyeing its untapped mineral reserves and hydrocarbon resources, direly needs foreign investment to create jobs, develop communities and boost revenues.

The district of Chagai is one of the most backward and least-developed areas in Balochistan. It lacks healthcare facilities and has a poor educational infrastructure. The human development indicators in the district are among the most challenging in the country. With no infrastructure, no proper road network and no industry, the people of the Chagai desert lack almost any employment opportunities.

TCC has spent $1.5 million to date on initiatives such as training local people, local procurement, a school house, a health clinic, teacher training, and humanitarian aid for natural disasters like floods and earthquakes in Balochistan. The company also provides training to the local women in tailoring skills to establish local businesses to supply TCC uniforms.

Samia said, "We plan extensive training and capacity building programs to prepare local people for work within the Reko Diq project. We see our role as a catalyst for economic and social development of the communities we operate in."

The first batch of TCC employees, 80% from the province and about 76% of them from Chagai, has already been sent to the Descon Institute in Lahore for training.

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

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If that's true then its welcomed! its a good decision since the copper and gold estimated there is about 65$ billion of worth almost twice the total debt on pakistan and was given to Austrailian & Chilean companies almost free.

Australian economy will be sitting duck without Chinese investments every one knows that. I Think Pakistan and China should start world's biggest Mining company & i can clearly say that all resources in Pakistan and middle east could go in favor of ours.