BEIJING: China and Pakistan will soon conduct a joint research initiative to investigate geochemical anomalies identified in previous surveys across Pakistan.
Dr. Sajjad Ahmed, Director General of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, disclosed these plans during the International Conference on Cooperation among Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Countries in Geosciences and Mining Investments.
The conference, highlighted by China Economic Net (CEN) on Friday, also commemorated the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China-SCO Geosciences Cooperation Research Center.
Since its inception, the center has singed over 40 cooperation agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), implementing more than 50 collaborative projects with 13 SCO countries including Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. These projects focus on Eurasian resources, environmental studies, and earth system science.
Over the past decade, the China-SCO Geosciences Cooperation Research Center has significantly advanced earth sciences, fostered cooperation, and supported sustainable mineral resource exploration.
Dr. Sajjad Ahmed underscored the enduring friendship between China and Pakistan as pivotal to their collaborative efforts in this domain, echoing the Pakistani Prime Minister’s recent visit to China, which emphasized bilateral cooperation in geosciences and mining.
Following a joint statement released during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s June visit to China, mining has emerged as a key area for industrial cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework.
Both nations have committed to enhancing long-term planning for mining cooperation, implementing agreements to strengthen mining and industrial collaboration, conducting geological surveys, joint research on geology and minerals, and fostering talent development.
Furthermore, Chinese enterprises are encouraged to invest in Pakistan’s mining sector and collaborate on planning mining industrial parks, including downstream mineral processing facilities.
The collaboration between China and Pakistan in geosciences and mining has grown increasingly robust, encompassing geological mapping, comparative studies on metallogenic patterns, geochemical surveys of significant metallogenic zones or belts, and verification of anomalies in Pakistan’s metallogenic potential zones in recent years.
