Paleozoic Literature

Chitral Slate

Late Palaeozoic

Cited in 3 sources Last reviewed Aug 29, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: PaleozoicLate Palaeozoic
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Chitral region, northern Pakistan.
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Fine-grained black slates with subordinate dark grey phyllite, quartzite and layers of limestone or marble; limestone dark grey to black, medium-grained, recrystallised.
Synonyms: Chitral Slates

The Chitral Slate is a Palaeozoic (largely Late Palaeozoic) slate-dominated succession of the Chitral region, correlated with the Darkot Group of the Gilgit area (Stauffer, 1975). It consists mainly of fine-grained black slates with subordinate phyllite, quartzite and limestone/marble intercalations.

Fossils

Spirifer (brachiopod)Dielasma (brachiopod)corals

Contacts

In the Hindukush-Chitral column

LimestoneMetamorphicFossils recordedContact not recorded

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type; dotted = no contact recorded in the sources (not a claim of conformity). True scale makes height ∝ recorded thickness; hatched = thickness not recorded. Ages approximate, for ordering.

This unit (highlighted) within its province column; faded ends continue above and below. Line style marks the contact type.

Distribution & setting

Hindukush-Chitral

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: Not recorded
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →

Economic significance

Other

Antimony: stibnite in quartz veins historically mined about 3 miles southwest of Partsan over a belt roughly 2 miles long, with further antimony mineralization reported northeast of Partsan in the Mastuj Valley (Heron 1950; Stauffer 1975).

Remarks

Not recorded

Research notes (4)

Field-by-field findings drawn from the cited literature. Every statement is traced to a registered source — follow a citation for the full reference.

Lithology (2)

Mujtaba et al. (2024): the Chitral Slates are fine-grained black slates with subordinate dark grey phyllite, quartzite and limestone/marble layers (dark grey-black, medium-grained, recrystallised); Palaeozoic (likely Late Palaeozoic), correlated with the Darkot Group of the Gilgit Agency (Stauffer 1975).

Mujtaba, A., Gilani, S.N., Hafeez, M., Khan, I., Shah, A., Khan, S., Gillani, S.A.A. & Gul, M.A. (2024)
Upper Palaeozoic schists and (meta-)volcanics of the Chitral area (Chitral Slates), part of the geosynclinal succession of the Central Hindu Kush (Buchroithner & Gamerith 1986).

Buchroithner, M.F. & Gamerith, H. (1986)

Fossils & biostratigraphy (1)

Stauffer (1975): the only fossils recovered from the Chitral Slate are a Spirifer, a small Dielasma and two unidentified corals, collected by Tipper (in Fermor 1922) from a calcareous layer within the slates in the Chitral Gol; on this sparse evidence the formation is dated only as Paleozoic, probably in part late Paleozoic.

Stauffer, K.W. (1975)

Economic significance (1)

Stauffer (1975, after Heron 1950): antimony sulfides occur in quartz veins in the Chitral Slate and have been mined in a ~2-mile-long belt about 3 miles SW of Partsan, with additional antimony showings NE of Partsan in the Mastuj Valley.

Stauffer, K.W. (1975)

Sources (1)

Mujtaba, A., Gilani, S.N., Hafeez, M., Khan, I., Shah, A., Khan, S., Gillani, S.A.A. & Gul, M.A. (2024). Geochemical and Petrographic Analysis of Hydrothermal Mineralization in the Chitral Region, Northern Pakistan. Advancements in Mining & Mineral Engineering, 1(3), AMME.MS.ID.000513.

Reviewer confidence: medium

Every fact on this page is source-cited. This entry is part of the peer-archived Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset (doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991, CC‑BY‑4.0).

Lexicon status: Defined in journal or other literature; not found in a GSP memoir. There is no body currently ratifying unit status, so provenance is shown in place of a formal ruling.

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Cite this unit

APA

Qudsi, L. (2026). Chitral Slate. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_chitralslate,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Chitral Slate} --- Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.21363991},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991}
}

Archived dataset: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991 (CC‑BY‑4.0) · Direct link to this entry: https://stratigraphy.pk/formation/chitral-slate (accessed October 29, 2026).

Referenced in other successions

Overlain by Darkot Group

Underlain by Reshun Formation