BME/BLZ
Bolan Mining Enterprise(BME) is a joint venture between Government of Balochistan and Pakistan Petroleum Limited with each sharing a 50 percent working interest agreement signed on June 1, 1974 between the two for 30 years to mine, grind and market baryte deposit in Gunga near Khuzdar and other minerals in Balochistan. PPL was designated as operator under this agreement which was renewed in June 2004 for another three decades.
After acquiring stake in mining of minerals in Balochistan in general and barytes deposits at Gunga, Khuzdar in specific, BME today stands as the biggest commercial producer of drilling grade barytes in Pakistan as per American Petroleum Institute (API 13 A) specs, which is a bench mark in the country.
BME holds four mining leases (MLs) and an exploration license (EL). These are Khuzdar Barytes ML, Lead-Zinc EL which was converted into Mineral Deposit Retention License (MDRL), Pachinkoh and Chigendik (Nokkundi) Iron Ore MLs and Dilband Iron ML. With this, BME had set new goals for the company three years back with a business expansion, modernization and distinction programme.
BME has achieved new heights of business distinction clearly indicative by the quantity of barytes ore and powder sold in the domestic and export market globally. BME is a barytes price setter in domestic market by holding the ownership of Khuzdar barytes lease which forms 90 percent share of Pakistan’s barytes reserves, the remaining 7 percent is shared from southern Balochistan (Lasbella) and 3 percent from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
BME has also embarked upon the successful completion of Bankable Feasibility Study for commercial exploitation of Barite-Lead and Zinc deposits at Gunga, Khuzdar including 10000 meters drilling at 27 locations. Development plan is in hand and which is expected to put Pakistan among the top 5 barytes producers of the world, bringing additional revenues for lead & zinc commodities and also new avenues of employment.
The development of Barite-Lead-Zinc deposit at Gunga Khuzdar on commercial scale would ensure substantial expansion of BME which would contribute towards the development of mineral sector in Balochistan. BME has established to further consider inclusion of additional areas adjacent to BLZ project in its portfolio parallel to explore it’s potential during development of Barite-Lead-Zinc deposit at Gunga, Khuzdar.