THE Nizampur area of Nowshera used to be so desolate, that an old Pashto adage described it as `Nizampur na ukhwa bal thana nishta aw siphai na landi bal uhda` (There is no police station beyond the Nizampur and no position below the foot constable in police).

But today, Nizampur is no longer a stretch of land to be looked at with pity.

The area is enjoying a gold rush, thanks to the Indus, which crisserosses through it.

The entire stretch of Nowshera district from Kund to Nizampur, where the turquoise waters of the Indus merge with muddy torrents from the Kabul, has seen largescale placer gold mining.A bevy of excavators lines the river bank from Kund all the way to the British-era railway bridge connecting Nowshera with Attock in Punjab.

All day long, excavators thump their heavy booms into the river`s depths and pull out their buckets filled with mud and stones.

A number of labourers then try their luck at extracting gold particles from this sand using gold sluice mats.

Thanks to this mining, posting at Nizampur police station has become `very lucrative` these days, a policeman deputed at the railway bridge told Dawn.

He said placer gold mining in Indus and Kabul rivers has `transformed` the area economically.

Abdullah, a local youth, said placer gold mining in the Indus river has increased in the past few years.

There used to be small-scale mining in the river, but for the past couple of months, it has turned into a huge operation as a large number of excavators bury their buckets into the river bed day and night.

Dawn counted more than 50 excavators scooping the river bottom from Kund Park to Attock Khurd Railway Bridge, a distance of around four kilometres.

The labourers, mostly locals, were evasive in their responses and didn`t reveal how much gold they discovered every day.

`It is difficult to tell, and many prospectors have gone bankrupt while trying to hit the jackpot,` Javed Khan, a local gold miner, said when asked about the mining.

He was paid Rs2,000 daily, while some other workers were getting Rs1,500.

Rs800bn reserves The placer gold deposits in Indus near Attock made headlines earlier this year, following a news report claiming the discovery of gold deposits amounting to Rs800 billion near Attock.

The claim was made by Punjab`s former minister for mines and minerals, Ibrahim Hassan Murad, in a social media statement.His claim was based on a report, `Potential Evaluation of Placer Gold on River Indus in District Attock,` prepared by the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) for the Punjab Mines and Mineral Department.

Dawn contacted a GSP official who prepared the report, but he refused to discuss the findings.

`Yes, we have carried out a research study and presented our findings to the Punjab Mines and Minerals Department, but we could not discuss the report as it is now the department`s property,` the official said.

Another study, `Economic Evaluation of Placer Gold along River Indus from Ghazi to Kund, KP: Implications for Commercial Scale Plant` done by the University of Peshawar`s National Center of Excellence in Geology in 2019, noted that maximum gold reserves were found at Kund, Beka and Allahder areas along the Indus river.

It said that the Indus River was well known for placer gold occurrence as the element was being locally extracted from various locations.

`The stream sediments originated from the exposed rocks due to the weathering and transport by the action of streams and rivers,` the report added.

Legality Interestingly, Punjab, which is a stone`s throw from Kund, has banned placer gold mining in the river inside its borders.

However, a Nowshera district administration official told Dawn that the mining in Nowshera was legal.

The mining leases were issued by the KP Mines and Minerals Department at a cost of Rs5bn, said the official who wished not to be named.

Another department official said four blocks for placer gold mining were auctioned last year for Rs4.93bn.

They included Block A in SwabiNowshera, Block B in Nowshera, Block C in Nowshera-Kohat and Block D in Kohat.

A subsequent auction for 13 other blocks attracted zero bidders.

Environmental concerns The boom of placer gold mining has concerned environmentalists who say that excessive excavation of river beds was disturbing aquatic life and changing river channels.

Locals claim the use of mercury in gold extraction has damaged the river`s ecosystem.

Abdullah, a local, said fishermen have been complaining about finding fewer fish in the river since the start of large-scale mining.

Last month, Peshawar High Court sought a report from the KP Environmental Protection Agency on the impact of mercury used in gold mining in the Khushal Garh area of Kohat.

Locals had termed the use of mercury in gold mining an environmental hazard that contaminated air and the river and also affected their agricultural land adjacent to the mines.

A mining department official told Dawn that the use of mercury for gold extraction was illegal. He claimed that the department takes action against those engaging in illegal mining.