PESHAWAR, Aug 11 Suspension of raw material supply from Buner has put the country's marble industry in jeopardy, rendered thousands of workers jobless and hit hard the local economy.

The military's clean-up operation may have prompted thousands of displaced families to return to their homes in Buner district, but the majority of them have no work because of a ban on mining and processing of marble, officials and locals say.

Buner has 68 per cent of the country's total deposits of marble and over 1,000 quarries and processing units which, according to people in the business, are meeting almost 70 per cent of the domestic demand.

Suni Gray, Suni White, Jungle Gray and Jet Black are some of the main varieties of marble processed in the area.

“The quarries of Buner produce 1,600 tons of marble daily,” said Rahimzada, vice-chairman of the Frontier Mine Association. “The business now is only a fraction of what it used to be before the military launched its operation in April to flush out militants from the area.”

All the mines and processing units in Salarzai, Daggar, Chagherzai and Khudokhel areas of Buner have been closed for four months, causing huge losses to the owners besides rendering jobless 80,000 people involved directly or indirectly in the business, he said.

Mining and marble processing industry is a major source of livelihood for almost half of the 0.6 million population of the Buner district, as it generates over 60,000 jobs in the allied businesses apart from more than 12,000 direct labour force.

Likewise, the provincial government, on account of royalty, annually collects Rs40 million, a portion of which is given to locals for leasing out the mountains owned by the tribes. Moreover, the processing units contribute Rs42 million on account of utility bills and Rs15.5 million as central excise duty.

Mr Rahimzada argues that that almost 70 per cent of Buner economy is based on mines and marble processing units that have been badly affected during the military operation.

A majority of the locals, he said, had invested capital in this industry and they had no other source of income.

As almost all the displaced families from the Buner district have returned to their hometowns, but the marble industry is yet to resume operation because of the ban imposed by the civil and military administrations.

An official told Dawn the government had banned the transportation of explosives, used in blasting marble deposits, to prevent its misuse by militants.

Similarly, he said, the district government was also not letting the owners of processing units to start work to make sure that electricity being provided to the area was only used for pumping drinking water from tubewells.

Since quarries of Buner produced raw material for the country's marble industry, ban on use of explosives had a trickledown effect on the whole processing cycle across the country, said Mohammad Younus, manager of a marble factory in the Tarnol area of Islamabad, when approached for comments.

“All the factories in Punjab receive 80 per cent of raw material from Buner because of its cheap prices and better quality,” he informed, adding “Their businesses have been closed for four months because they didn't receive supply from Buner.”

He confirmed that lack of supply has also contributed in raising the prices of the available marble that originated from Buner, adding Suni White quality of marble earlier available at Rs21 per foot was now being sold at Rs30 to Rs32.

The closure of mines in Buner has also affected the revenues of companies which have leased out heavy machinery to businessmen involved in the business.

“The mining process has been closed for four months, which means stoppage of monthly lease instalments,” said Amjad Kakakhel, a Peshawar-based manager of the OREX Leasing Company.

The company, which had financed procurement of excavators and bulldozers in Buner, had not received any payments from the leaseholders for four months, he said.

Availability of explosives might have dangerous consequences for the security of the area, but absolute ban was not the solution and the government had to find a midway, said Javed Khattak, provincial chief of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority which is currently preparing a plan for economic revival of the conflict-affected areas.

He argued that the conflict had affected the local economy, but it had also provided an opportunity for modernising the marble excavation process with limited use of explosives.

The building of a model quarry cost Rs160 million, but upgradation of an existing quarry by introducing a semi-mechanised process could be made at Rs1.2 million, he maintained, adding “The government must go for this option.”

He suggested that the transportation and use of explosives in marble mining could be monitored by a core group comprising army engineers and representatives of the mining association. Similarly, he added, the much-awaited upgradation of existing 66KV transmission line into 132KV could also resolve electricity problem of the area.