Pakistan's current $7 million per annum marble exports can easily be raised to about $40 million in a span of three years, independent marble experts estimated.
According to an Italian report on Pakistan marble industry, the wastage rate, which is one of the highest in the world, reflects the negligence of Pakistan's system. These marble and granite reserves can give a boost to the national economy if exploited and marketed properly, keeping pace with the world market trends and requirements.
Existing distribution system in Pakistan for marble and granite is quite distorted. Mine owners cannot ensure consistent supplies of the mined products to the processors, whether local or foreign, the report said.
At present, quarrying methods are crude and primitive. The technology used in the cutting and polishing of marble is basically the same as that used for cutting most other stones, except granite. Through less expensive, locally manufactured cutting machines having only 40-45 blades fail to perform a precision cutting job, resulting in inconsistent thickness of marble tiles.
Extracting marble in Pakistan comprises boring of holes in the bedrock, which are filled with explosives to blast the rock. This results not only in a high wastage (up to 73 percent), but also in smaller stone size which substantially reduces the price.
In Pakistan, marble along with granite is the sixth largest mineral extracted among coal, rock salt, limestone, china clay, dolomite, fire clay, gypsum, silica sand etc.
NWFP and Fata areas produce about 87 percent marble, 1 percent granite and 12 percent salt, which is about 82 percent of the overall production of the country.
Among 160 million tons of total estimated reserves of marble, 158 million tons are located in NWFP and Fata.
Balochistan has nearly 60 operational mines. Total known reserves of marble in the province are around 2 million tons. The colours found in Balochistan are widely acceptable in the local markets. Sindh also has good colours of granite in Tharparker and Dadu districts. There are 15 operational mines, while reserves are not known as no effort in this direction has been made so far.
There is a big cluster of processing units in Sindh, at Karachi, with over 180 small and medium sized units. There are more than 600 units of micro size with one to three cutters per unit.
Punjab has no contribution to the quarry production. There are, however, deposits of salt and limestone in northern Punjab.
However three significant sized clusters of processing units in the province exit at Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In addition, there are smaller clusters in Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Sialkot and Gujrat
Presently, marble is processed in more than 1600 units in the country, including 685 small and medium size units.
Miro units: These units have a maximum investment of up to Rs one million. Small size units have investment ranging from Rs 1.1 million to Rs 5 million. There is total strength of around 677 units with monthly average production of 8000 to 9000 square feet.
Around 10 to 13 medium size units, having investment ranging from Rs 5.1 million to Rs 20 million, have average monthly production of around 20,000 square feet.
Domestic market produce around 100 million square feet marble and granite. Existing consumption of around 46 million square feet is less than half of the total production. This gap is being filled with alternative products which include ceramic, vinyl tiles and marble chips.