By Martin Shwenk Leade

Copyright indiatimes

ET OnlinePicture Credits: White House

To regain favour in Washington, Pakistan’s military-civilian leadership highlighted its rare earth mineral reserves during a meeting with US President Donald Trump last week, as seen in a photo released by the White House.In the White House photo gallery of the Shehbaz Sharif–Asim Munir meeting with Donald Trump, one image shows the two presenting Trump with an open 18×18 inch wooden box containing colorful stones, likely mineral samples. The larger rocks resemble bastnaesite and monazite, known for rare earth elements like cerium, lanthanum, and neodymium, while the smaller, bright pebbles appear gemstone-like.Pakistan has often highlighted its untapped reserves of oil, gas, and minerals, including rare earths, mainly in conflict-hit Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Though these deposits remain unproven commercially, its leaders showcased samples to the US President to underline recent exploration agreements with a private American firm. Adding to the charm offensive, PM Sharif wore a US-Pakistan flag lapel pin, which some social media users in Pakistan mocked as “embarrassing.”While there is no direct government-to-government agreement to explore or exploit the mineral wealth, Pakistan’s Frontier Works Organisation (FWO)—a military-linked engineering and mining entity—signed an MoU on September 8 with the Missouri-based US Strategic Metals (USSM), a private US firm specializing in critical minerals.The agreement, with an initial funding of $500 million from USSM, envisages three phases: Phase 1 (Immediate, 2025–2026), involving export of readily available minerals (e.g., antimony and copper concentrates) to US markets, generating quick revenue. – Phase 2 (Medium-term, 2026–2028) involving the construction of processing plants and refineries in Pakistan, with technology transfer for REE separation and purification. – Phase 3 (Long-term, 2028+), involving large-scale exploration and exploitation, including drilling in high-potential REE belts, and developing 5–10 mining projects.Live EventsIslamabad’s rare earths gambit with the US — which could cause Pakistan’s patron China to burst a blood vessel since it has a stranglehold on rare earths supply to the US — comes on the heels of the its crypto caper, where it used a British-Pakistani entrepreneur to position itself as crypto capital where American businesses with ties to the Trump family could make a fortune.The businessman, Bilal bin Saqib, who has informally been made Pakistan’s “Minister of Crypto”, held a meeting with Trump’s Crypto Adviser, Patrick Witt, “to discuss avenues of collaboration between the US and Pakistan in the digital assets space,” on the sidelines of the White House meeting. He was later seen in the UN General Assembly promoting cryptocurrency during Sharif’s speech.Curiously, the Munir-Sharif duo also met FBI Director Kash Patel in the White House, suggesting there are some residual “wanted” issues with Islamabad. Over the years, Pakistan has extradited or turned over several of its nationals facing terror charges against US interests, often for a bounty.(With TOI inputs)Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!
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(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)Read More News onUS pakistan relationsUS pakistan relations newsUS pakistan tiesmunir in usPakistan rare earth mineralsFrontier Works Organisation (FWO)White House(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2025 Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.) Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online….moreless

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