Topaz from Pakistan is one of our Top 100 Minerals for collectors.
There are two major topaz producing deposit types in Pakistan. Perhaps the most well known are those of the pegmatite rocks in the Gilgit and Skardu Districts of the Northern Areas. The only deposits in Gilgit District to produce significant topaz are those around Haramosh-Dassu. The Nyet Bruk deposits in the Braldu Valley, and the Yuno and Mungo deposits in the Shigar Valley are the primary sources for very fine matrix specimens featuring gemmy sherry-colored topaz, commonly aesthetically associated with albite (cleavelandite), microcline, quartz, schorl, and other minerals.
The other major source is Ghundo Hill and the nearby Shamoozi mine, where the deposits consist of hydrothermal quartz-carbonate veins, rather than pegmatite bodies, just north of Katlang in the Mardan District of the North West Frontier Province. These veins have produced superb colorless to hot pink prismatic crystals, generally 2 to 5 cm in length, rarely more than 8 cm.
