The Chagai and Raskoh mountain ranges of the southeastern Balochistan province are home to garnet – a semi-precious stone of myriad colors. However, no systematic effort has been made so far to exploit its deposits. Garnet mostly occurs in honey, yellow, black, and rarely in green hues, and its local processing and value addition can open up new portals of jobs, trade, business, and sustainable livelihood for all stakeholders of the mining industry, said Chief Geologist at Koh-e-Daleel Minerals Company (Pvt) Ltd Abdul Bashir while talking to WealthPK. Garnets form two types of solid solution series: one is pyrope-almandine-spessartine and the other is uvarovite-grossular-andradite. Metamorphic and alluminium-rich granites (in igneous/granitic pegmatites) are its rock sources. It rarely occurs in eclogite. Garnet is also formed near the earth’s crust in high aluminum-bearing schist (sedimentary shale). Naturally, garnets are grown in uniformed crystalline form with various triangular-shaped faces. With no cleavage, garnet keeps a conchoidal fracture with a hardness between 6.5 and 7. 5 at the Mohs’ scale of hardness.

Gemstones do not occur as a regular deposit but as a streak/vein that may be 50 meters long and about 10 meters wide. “Red garnet is one of the most widespread gems found in metamorphic rocks (altered by heat and pressure) on every continent. But not all garnets are as abundant as are the red ones. Green garnet is too expensive, as it occurs rarely. Talking to WealthPK, former chairman of the All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA) for rough and unpolished gemstones Zakir Ullah alias Jhulay Lal said garnet was found across the globe. The mountain ranges bordering both Pakistan and Afghanistan are rich in its deposits and are even called the rooftop of garnet. In these areas, it occurs in different colors like red, purple, pale, yellow, white, brown, and transparent crystalline or colorless form. The hardness of garnet depends upon its variety or type. For example, demantoid is a bit softer, while varieties like spessartine, pyrope, almandite, and tsavorite are harder. Mostly, grossular garnets are famous for their color or variety. For example, grossular garnets are known as tsavorite, hessonite, hydro grossular, and mint, etc.

Leuco garnet is colorless and a rare variety. Almandine or almandite is mostly found in red wine color. Other than Balochistan, garnet-rich areas in Pakistan are the Shigar district, Rondu district, valleys of Swat and Hunza, and Kohistan region. Garnet is prized for its hardness and stability and is used in a variety of industrial purposes like water jet cutting granules, blasting granules, as filtration medium, industrial blast cleaning, polishing, non-slip coatings, sandpaper, making abrasives, grits, powders, sanding belts, discs, and strips. It is also used in ornamentation and jewellery. The international garnet market is segmented to reach US$973.15 million by the year 2031 at a compound annual growth rate of 4.73% from US$642.01 in 2022. It is important for Pakistan’s policymakers to consider exploration of gemstones, including garnet, to promote and strengthen the mineral sector, especially its gemstone segment.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)