• NBA concerned over minimum price fixed for gold blocks’ auction.
• Leaseholders openly engaging in subletting: NAB.
• KP govt auctioned placer gold blocks at high prices: Gandapur.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), expressing strong reservations over the minimum price fixed for auction of gold blocks along the Indus and Kabul rivers, has stated the province is suffering losses worth trillions. It has also exposed irregularities during gold exploration operations.

According to official documents of provincial government, NAB maintains leaseholders are openly engaging in subletting and charging Rs500,000 to Rs700,000 per excavator per week. Their weekly income is estimated between Rs750 million to Rs1 billion, amounting to trillions, while the government is receiving only a meager amount.

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur told this correspondent his government auctioned the placer gold blocks at high prices. Previously, the auction price of a single block had reached Rs650 million, but his government fixed the minimum price at Rs1.10 billion and sold four blocks for around Rs4.6 billion for ten years. For the past 20 years no auction had taken place, and people had been extracting gold illegally, he said.

The chief minister said the project was advertised two to three times, but the bids were low. His government auctioned it at higher rates. He questioned why the study started in 2023 was stopped and who stopped it.

He said when the auction was held, a letter was sent to the NAB and one of its officers was also present. He said all legal requirements were fulfilled. The CM said operations are continuing to stop illegal mining.

According to available documents, in a high-level meeting held at NAB headquarters on August 7 and attended by top provincial officials, including Chief Secretary KP and Secretary Minerals, the NAB’s inquiry disclosed reserve price of gold blocks was deliberately miscalculated. The 2015 study by the National Centre of Excellence in Geology, Peshawar, which had identified gold reserves ranging from 0.21 to 44.15 grams per ton, was also ignored. Instead of following KP Auction Rules 2022, the department intervened to benefit specific bidders.

Furthermore, the geological mapping project launched in 2022 for new mineral resource estimates was halted in November 2023 only in the case of placer gold, raising suspicions of deliberate concealment. Previous auctions had also failed due to poor publicity which failed to attract international investors.

The documents show under the auction rules, if an agreement is not finalised within 14 days, the offer should be withdrawn. However, despite delays of months, contracts and allotment letters were issued. Mining operations even continued in November 2024 despite a stay order from the Peshawar High Court.

The NAB highlighted serious violations by the leaseholders, such as not conducting environmental impact assessments, not obtaining NOCs from Environmental Protection Agency, failing to install processing plants, not following exploitation schemes, not submitting production or sales records, dangerously using mercury and illegally employing unskilled miners.

According to the NAB, more than 1,500 excavators are operating illegally in the area. Leaseholders are charging Rs500,000 to Rs700,000 per excavator weekly, thus earning Rs750 million to Rs1.05 billion per week. It is estimated trillions have already been earned, while the government is being paid only a token amount.

Originally published in The News