{"id":27461,"date":"2025-12-30T15:06:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=27461"},"modified":"2025-12-30T15:07:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:07:01","slug":"pakistan-emerges-on-radar-of-us-firms-for-critical-mineral-exports-ft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=27461","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan emerges on radar of US firms for critical mineral exports: FT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Pakistan holds only 1% of global antimony reserves<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/channel\/UCFWx0mweS7ExXjs3s_wH0CQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BusinessRecorder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/businessrecorder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brecordernews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/feeds\/latest-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><strong>Pakistan is emerging as a potential beneficiary of the global race for critical minerals, with rising US interest in antimony opening a window for the country\u2019s mining sector, reported the\u00a0<em>Financial Times (FT)<\/em>\u00a0on Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the report, Pakistan, which was largely viewed as a source of raw ore destined for Chinese buyers, is now drawing attention from American defence-linked companies seeking to diversify supply chains away from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor years, the only buyers for the antimony Jabbar Khan sourced from wildcat traders in Afghanistan were secretive Chinese intermediaries, who bargained hard over the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNow, Khan, chief operating officer at Himalayan Earth Exploration company, is fielding calls from US buyers interested in stockpiling the silvery-white rock vital to the production of missiles, batteries and flame retardants from Pakistan and central Asia,\u201d read the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to&nbsp;<em>FT<\/em>, the price of antimony trioxide has risen to around $40,000 per tonne as fears about China\u2019s control of the supply chains for metals, including antimony, have sparked a global race to secure supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to US President Donald Trump\u2019s desire to secure critical minerals, \u201cthe conversations we had been pushing for seven years, especially around antimony, finally started gaining traction both in Pakistan and the United States\u201d, Liaqat Ali Sultan, the chief executive of Himalayan Earth Exploration, told&nbsp;<em>FT<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite holding just 1% of the world\u2019s antimony reserves and producing only a small quantity, Pakistan has come under the radar of US companies. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, Pakistan-based Himalayan signed a \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d with Nova Minerals, a US-based mining exploration and development company listed on the ASX and NASDAQ, to \u201cstrengthen US-Pakistan economic ties\u201d through exploring for antimony, read the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier in November, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/news\/40392380\/boi-chief-nova-minerals-team-focus-on-rare-earth-minerals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Board of Investment (BOI) met a delegation from Nova Minerals Ltd<\/a>. During the discussion, the Nova Minerals delegation expressed strong interest in exploring investment opportunities in Pakistan\u2019s mineral and mining sectors, particularly in antimony and rare earth minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christopher Gerteisen, Nova\u2019s chief executive, told FT that his company will buy \u201cover 100 tonnes\u201d of Pakistani antimony concentrate for about $2 million early next year for testing and processing in Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It may eventually set up \u201cdownstream processing\u201d of the ore in Pakistan, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Department of War encouraged us to go out in the world and find whatever we can,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier in September, Pakistan\u2019s Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and the United States (US) US Strategic Metals (USSM)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/news\/40381731\/pakistan-us-sign-500mn-mou-to-boost-cooperation-in-critical-minerals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth $500 million&nbsp;<\/a>to strengthen cooperation in the critical minerals sector, marking a step toward deeper economic and strategic engagement between the two countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>USSM\u2019s planned processing plant and mine are not yet operational. However, it received a small sample of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/news\/40385840\/pakistan-delivers-first-shipment-of-rare-earth-elements-critical-minerals-to-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pakistani antimony in October&nbsp;<\/a>for quality testing, read the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>FT<\/em>&nbsp;highlighted that miners complain that Pakistan remains at the lower end of the value chain, with little processing or refining capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAlmost all of our raw antimony comes out of artisanal mines from north-west mountain regions and disappears into the hands of Chinese buyers at Karachi\u2019s port, usually far below market rates,\u201d said one veteran of Pakistan\u2019s mining sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, Nova\u2019s Gerteisen says that he and other US buyers are willing to offer prices well above those of Chinese competitors. \u201cPakistan is a virgin country for mineral exploration,\u201d he told&nbsp;<em>FT<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reference Link:- <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/news\/40399655\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/news\/40399655<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan is emerging as a potential beneficiary of the global race for critical minerals, with rising US interest in antimony opening a window for the country\u2019s mining sector, reported the\u00a0Financial Times (FT)\u00a0on Monday. According to the report, Pakistan, which was largely viewed as a source of raw ore destined for Chinese buyers, is now drawing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[25752,25751,24353,24349,483,25754,24198,25753],"class_list":["post-27461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-critical-elements","tag-mineral-and-minning","tag-mineral-exports","tag-natural-resources-2","tag-pakistan-2","tag-pakistan-on-us-radar","tag-rare-earth-minerals-2","tag-us-eye-on-pakistani-minerals","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27464,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27461\/revisions\/27464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}