PESHAWAR : Special Adviser to Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ziaulllah Afridi has said that efforts will be made to acquire a stall/booth for showcasing the KP mineral potential at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) a four-day annual Convention (March 2-5) held in Toronto, Canada. Talking to a Canadian delegation at the Pakhtunkhwa House Monday evening he said that after the passage of 18th Constitutional Amendment, KPK has an opportunity to explore its mineral potential and Canada can provide a lot of help to this Province in transfer of skill, technology, legislation and resources.
Senator Adnan Khan was also present on this occasion besides others. The Canadian delegation was led by Consular (political and Trade) Canadian High Commission Islamabad Denis Chouinard.
PDAC is the world’s leading Convention for people, companies and organisations in, or connected with, mineral exploration, has grown in size, stature and influence since it began in 1932 and is the event of choice for the world’s mineral industry. In addition to meeting over 1,000 exhibitors, 30,147 attendees from 126 countries, it will allow KP delegation the opportunity to attend technical sessions, short courses as well as social and networking events.
While the province has potential of marble/ granite, cement grade lime stone, phosphates, soapstone, nepheline syenite & other industrial minerals beside gemstone and metallic minerals its southern part has extensive potential of industrial rocks and minerals which include rock salt, gypsum, clay minerals, limestone, silica sand, iron ore and coal etc. These include classical carbonate marble mainly white and gray and other shades of marble in the province are black, pink and green; a range of granites of dark and light coloured are abundantly available mainly in shades of green, gray, black, & pink; and a massive limestone, sand stones, slate, phyllite are also amenable to processing as substitute of marble and granite.
Estimated resource of marble in the province is about 3 billion tonne. Major occurrences are Chitral marble block having a potential of more than 1000 million tonne, Shangla par (Swat) marble of more than 200 million tonne, Buner marble belt having geological resources of 1400 million tonne and Swabi marble block of about 200 million tonne and Nowshera pink marble of about 100 million tonne.
Estimated resources of granite are available in billion of tonne. The potential occurrences of dark coloured granites, mostly with green shades, are more than 1000 million tonne and light coloured granite is more than 1000 million tonne.
Proposed sites for investment in dimension stones are Buner-Mardan white & sunny gray marble, Chitral white marble, Dir green Granite, Mansehra black granite and Shangla serpentinites.
Same is the case with industrial rocks and minerals as well as metallic minerals, coal and gold that is why Senator Adnan Khan disclosed that the PTI wanted to establish steel mills there to provide job opportunities to the local people on the one hand and avail maximum of these potential on the other.