ABSTRACT
The global demand for mineral resources, coupled with rising domestic demand, is encouraging increasingly active exploration and development. Both political and environmental opposition and bureaucratic obstacles to mineral extraction contribute to what many in South Asia see as a painfully slow rate of discovery and exploitation. Non-energy mineral resources are very unevenly distributed. Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives have very limited non-energy mineral resources. India, in contrast, has a variety of economically important minerals, some of which have been exploited for several decades. Sri Lanka is rich in gem stones, while Afghanistan’s potential is considerable, though as yet little developed. Pakistan has extensive proven reserves of copper, gold, iron ore, limestone and salt, though their total contribution to Pakistan’s GDP is only around 2 per cent.
