The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), expressing serious concerns over the minimum price set for the auction of gold blocks along the Indus and Kabul rivers, has stated that the province is suffering losses worth trillions.

The bureau has also exposed irregularities in gold exploration operations.

According to official provincial government documents, NAB noted that leaseholders are openly subletting and charging between Rs500,000 to Rs700,000 per excavator per week.

Their estimated weekly income ranges from Rs750 million to Rs1 billion, totaling trillions, while the government receives only a minimal share.

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, told this correspondent that his government auctioned the placer gold blocks at high prices.

Previously, a single block had been auctioned at Rs650 million, but his government set the minimum price at Rs1.10 billion and sold four blocks for around Rs4.6 billion for a ten-year period.

He noted that no auctions had taken place in the past 20 years, and illegal gold extraction had been ongoing.

The project was advertised two to three times, but the bids were low, prompting the government to auction at higher rates.

The Chief Minister questioned why a study that started in 2023 was stopped and who had halted it.

He added that when the auction was held, a letter was sent to NAB, and one of its officers was present.

All legal requirements were fulfilled, he said, and operations are continuing to prevent illegal mining.

Documents reveal that in a high-level NAB meeting on August 7, attended by top provincial officials including the Chief Secretary KP and Secretary Minerals, the inquiry found that the reserve price of gold blocks had been deliberately miscalculated.

A 2015 study by the National Centre of Excellence in Geology, Peshawar, which identified gold reserves ranging from 0.21 to 44.15 grams per ton, had also been ignored.

Instead of following the KP Auction Rules 2022, the department intervened to favor specific bidders.

Additionally, the geological mapping project launched in 2022 to estimate new mineral resources was halted in November 2023 only for placer gold, raising suspicions of deliberate concealment.

Previous auctions had also failed due to poor publicity, which did not attract international investors.

Documents show that under the auction rules, if an agreement is not finalized within 14 days, the offer should be withdrawn.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.