US Balochistan Mining Plan Faces Security Hurdles Amid China Rivalry

"The potential of minerals in Pakistan can be immense, yet mineral wealth does not drift. It needs roads, electric power, usury, environmental permits and above all some semblance of political order. Washington cannot want the copper and forget about the war," according to an article in Eurasia Review.

The United States is beginning to view mineral security as national security in which innovative planning in industry, defence production and energy transition now revolve around copper, the rare earths, graphite, nickel, cobalt and other strategic inputs. Due to this, Pakistan has assumed a new importance for Washington.

According to the IEA, the demand in fundamental energy minerals, especially the grid, storage, and transport associated ones, will continue to be on the rise. However, China remains the dominant player in the refining and processing and that is still rattling Washington based policymakers.

The domestic acceleration, trade action and diversification of the supply chain are some of the responses that the white house has employed. This does not mean that the United States is able to replace China in the nearest future, states the article written by Dr. Shahzaib Khan.

Pakistan's reserves of the critical minerals and gold have been estimated to be often worth trillions and even the thrust of investment by Pakistan itself has thrown that estimate into the limelight of the debate. What is more important than the figure in the headline is the business fact that Reko Diq has huge undeveloped copper and gold projects in the world, the report observes.

In December 2025, the US embassy in Islamabad declared that the US Export Import bank funded the project at 1.25 billion dollars. The IFC and the ADB have not been left behind either to render significant assistance. They are not symbolic movements. They prove that Pakistan has overcome some important stumbling block in the minds of America. Washington is no longer talking in general terms of cooperating in the future. It is even beginning to fund a real project with real money, the article states.

"This is the reason why the surrounding security of Balochistan is even more significant, not lesser. When a strategic financing of a giant mining venture by the United States is conditional upon it, the instability of the neighboring area no longer remains a distant Pakistani matter. It is made into an American strategic exposure," the article points out.

However, the United States is entering after China which also has a geographical interest in Pakistan as the country is situated at the crossroads of South Asia, the Arabian Sea, west of China, and trade routes which theoretically could have connected Central Asia with the seaborne trade. China is familiar with the value of this geography.

In February 2025, Reuters reported that Beijing and Islamabad had settled to deepen their cooperation in the infrastructure and mining domain along with the creation of Gwadar port. Chinese interest in Pakistan is broad based and institutionalized, the article added.

- IANS