PESHAWAR,  March  20: The Pakistan  Mineral  Development Corporation and Governor’s Secretariat of Fata on Thursday signed two memorandums of understanding to facilitate exploitation of coal deposits in Orakzai Agency and soapstone in Kurram Agency.

The PMDC chairman, Irshad and secretary to the NWFP Governor Sahibzada Saeed Ahmad signed the MoUs. The governor, Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, and federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, Chaudhry Nouraiz Shakoor were also present on this occasion, stated a handout.

The signing of MoUs will facilitate a joint venture programme for the economically workable exploitation of coal and soap-stone deposits to meet the demand of raw material for cement, steel and soap industries and reduce import of industrial raw material.

The PMDC will bring in new technology for the mining of coal and soapstone with a view to provide high quality raw material to various industries.

The deposits of soapstone in Kurram Agency have been estimated at about four million tons from which a production of 50,000 tons per annum could be obtained. Likewise, an industrial unit for utilizing the soapstone would also be established at Parachinar to produce value-added products.

Earlier, the governor and federal minister were briefed by the director of mineral about the deposits of different minerals and precious stone, which have been explored in the tribal areas.