The Directorate of Mines and Minerals NWFP launched the pilot project of Geographical Information System (GIS) to facilitate the investors for mineral exploration and mining in NWFP and Development and launching of Website, Director General Mines and Mineral (DGMM), Mian Farooq Iqbal told Business Recorder on Thursday.
In this connection, the directorate has signed an agreement with Engineering Consultant Industries Limited (ECIL) to develop the system. The company would work in co-ordination with Exploration Promotion Division (EPD) of the DGMM of the Frontier province.
He said that the main objective of the scheme is to retrieve all the data so gathered or collected as a result of exploration and development activities on the minerals of the province mainly through implementation of the annual development programme (ADP) and PSDP schemes.
The project would also help collect the tenement (lease data) and the development activities by the private sector, which is presently lying scattered in form of hard copies on various scales.
Under the scheme all the data including the mineral lease data would be properly documented, compiled and would be processed to generation of data packages of the selected geological domains carrying mineral potential.
The data so collected on GIS format would be disseminated amongst the interested parties, particularly foresees exploration and mining companies not only to attract but also facilitate private sector investment, which in value high risk and long gestation period.
The GIS are computer systems used for mapping and analysing geographical data. It is versatile tool for studying many types of information, including geological and mineral data, used for scientific investigations and for managing resources. It may include any data with a spatial distribution and each location within the geographical area covered by a GIS is associated with a set of data.
Effective planning for the sustainable development of the NWFP's mines and mineral resources requires a wide range of up-to-date and impartial information and for this purpose the GIS would be designed to provide access to minerals-related information such as the distribution of mineral resources, mineral planning permissions and mineral extractions sites.
Mineral sector play important role in the strengthening of economy, but their extraction is subject to environment and other constraints like bringing together minerals, environmental and other land use information in an integrated system would allow more effective and sustainable management strategies to be developed.
It would prove a powerful tool to allow the relationship between different forms of land use to be analysed and quantified. It would also be used to identify areas where mineral extraction may conflict with other land use interest and it would help manage minerals resources of the region in terms of exploration, development, planning regulations and promotion activities.
It has been observed that with the passage of time, planning of mineral resource management has become increasingly regional in character and the alignment with the latest technologies would be of great help to attract the local and foreign investors.