PESHAWAR, Sept 14: A model quarry and a rock mining institute will be set up in Buner to help the private mining sector to improve quarrying by adopting mechanical mining practices.
The Export Development Fund (EDF) has approved a grant of Rs49 million for the establishment of the institute which would serve as a demo-cum-training project to improve mining practices on the part of the private sector.
A proposal to the effect of establishing the institute had been prepared and forwarded to the EDF, a federal government entity, by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda), NWFP.
Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, Smeda's provincial chief Mohammed Tariq said that the institute would impart mechanical mining training to miners from the private sector.
A need to impart modern quarrying techniques to the miners, he maintained, had been felt to ensure best use of the natural resource the province had in the marble and granite sector.
A study conducted by Smeda revealed that more than 70 per cent of the total quantity of marble extracted every year in different parts of the country was wasted because of poor quarrying practices.
"We need to preserve the precious resource and utilize it properly so as to take maximum benefit the country can take in terms of earning greater foreign exchange through exports of value-added marble products," said Mr Tariq.
He said that studies conducted by Smeda revealed that the Frontier province had tremendous potential in the marble and granite sector, gemstone sector, furniture sector, tourism, horticulture, fisheries and leather products.
By utilizing the potential to its fullest the province, he maintained, could boost economic activities and create a considerable number of jobs to bring down the rising poverty level.
Smeda, he added, was in the process of arranging small credit lines for the skilled labour trained from the Peshawar-based Gems and Geological Institute Pakistan. Established in 2001, the institute, he observed, had so far trained some 700 persons who would help the country improve quality standards through value addition to precious and semi-precious stones, thus, earning precious foreign exchange.
Apart from trying to arrange funding lines for the skilled and trained labourers to set up their personal small business centres of finishing and cutting precious and semi-precious stones, the authority, Mr Tariq added, had recently helped the association of local traders to enter into an agreement with a leasing company.
A memorandum of understanding between the two sides has already been signed, thereby the leasing company would provide funds to the interested traders on the basis of forwarding personal sureties instead of arranging collateral for seeking loans.
On the occasion, he highlight in detail Smeda's activities and interventions in various sectors it was working in to help SMEs develop small clusters and expand their outreach to domestic and foreign markets.