Marble Production in the Frontier

Intikhab Amir

Publishing Date: Thursday, April 24 2003

Marble is one of the most valued of the natural resources bestowed on the North West Frontier Province. There are vast reserves found in several pockets of the province which constitute 97 per cent of the country's total 160 million ton deposits (found so far) of this crystalline compact variety of metamorphosed limestone consisting primarily of calcite, dolomite or a combination of both the minerals.

The best marble is located in Buner, Swat, Mardan and Nowshera districts and the Malakand agency of NWFP as well as the adjoining Mohmand and Khyber agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Here you have a choice in the large range of shades available - from white, gray, red, to green and yellow.

Marble, combined with granite, is the sixth largest mineral extracted in Pakistan. Among others are coal, rock, salt, limestone, china clay, dolomite, fire clay, gypsum and silica sand. Since 1990 marble mining and quarrying has consistently contributed half a per cent to the GDP of the country. These huge marble reserves notwithstanding, the country does not export marble and its products in substantial quantities. Marble export fetches just US$5 million every year - which the experts believe is very discouraging.

Were the marble sector to be organized on modern lines the country could earn from the export of this mineral as much as US$40 million in three years and several times more in the long term by tapping the world markets and improving quality by value addition and bringing down the extraction losses.

Despite a remarkable increase in demand and consumption recorded in the world market during the last 20 years (with a trade turnover of US$6500 million annually), our marble industry failed to benefit from the boom. This sector was never organized properly and the private entrepreneurs in this business have not optimized their production.

Lacking in expertise, the private sector has been suffering losses on account of wastage amounting to 73 per cent of the extracted quantity. Unwieldy blasting techniques and unplanned excavation have not only resulted in this high rate of wastage - one of the highest in the world - but also in the loss of valuable resources endangering quarries and environment by disturbing the ecosystem.

Low skill, poor technology and low investment on the part of a majority of local businessmen is equally responsible for low growth of the marble sector in Pakistan. To maximize the gains from the export of this mineral and win its due share of the world market, it is important that the traders concentrate on marketing raw, intermediate and construction products for which a high demand exists in the Middle East, Far East and some of the European countries, where almost 50 per cent of the world's marble output is consumed.

Similarly, to improve the quality and raise productivity to meet international standards and demand, Pakistan will have to develop the skills of the local quarry masters so that the wastage can be reduced.

To attain this goal, the marble sector will have to induct modern technology extensively into its working. Presently, the processing industry relies heavily on local machinery and equipment with few high efficiency imported machines.

On the other hand, to facilitate miners' reconnaissance of the area in general, a detailed exploration of the promising areas is essential. There is also a need to prepare topographical and geological maps and collect samples for laboratory studies. Thus alone will it be possible to put the marble sector on the road to progress - which is essential for the national as well as the NWFP's economy.