The Directorate, Mines and Mineral Fata Secretariat deposited an amount of Rs 178.5 million collected in the head of royalty on the production of minerals in the tribal area.
"We had deposited the amount collected during last 15 years by the directorate after getting formal approval from the Ministry of Safran in the national exchequer," Director Minerals Fata, Yaqoob Shah told Business Recorder on Thursday.
The directorate, he said is making utmost efforts for the exploration of the potential of natural resources in Fata. The collection in head of the royalty on minerals in Fata had increased by hundreds fold during the current financial year. "The directorate had collected a handsome amount of Rs 60.2 million in just one year as compared to the amount of Rs 117.7 million collected during a period of 15 years," he contended.
During the current year the collection of royalty is expected to surpass the amount collected during last financial year. "The Mineral Directorate of the Fata Governor Secretariat is the only line department, which contributes handsome revenue to the national exchequer," claimed Yaqoob Shah.
The directorate is also working on the exploration of many other minerals in the region as Fata is rich in mineral resources and 19 different metallic, non-metallic and gemstones have been identified including copper, marble, coal, dolomite, quartz, silica, sand, soapstone, emerald, limestone, magnesite, graphite, manganese and gypsum.
Large deposits of marble, dolomite and silica sand have been found in Mohmand Agency, marble and manganese in Bajaur Agency, soapstone and magnesite in Kurram Agency, marble in Khyber Agency, coal in Orakzai Agency, copper in North and South Waziristan Agencies, gypsum, decoration stone and limestone in the Frontier Region (FR) of D.I. Khan. The existing data and information about mineral resources in Fata indicates substantial development potential of metallic and industrial minerals.
Work on copper enrichment and establishment of prototype plant at Shinkai, North Wazirisitan is under consideration in collaboration with Pakistan Science Foundation and University of Science & Technology Peshawar. Similarly, work on exploration and development of coal is in progress in collaboration with Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC).
"A soapstone mining project, a joint venture with PMDC in Kurram Agency would start production shortly and the commodity would be exported to the market of European Union," he added. Similarly, he said that the Governor's Secretariat has also invited major national and multinational companies for the exploration of hydrocarbon.
The richness of these territories in having vast mineral reserves, some of them more valuable in terms of commercial gains, could be judged from the fact that about 8 million tones copper reserves exist only in Shinkai while 8 million tones proven reserves of coal exist in Orakzai Agency. About 3.6 million tones of good grade soapstone deposits exist in Kurram Agency.
A scheme costing Rs 43 million, he said, is under execution in joint venture with PMDC and about 2,000 tones soapstone has so far been mined, out of which 55 tones transported to Italy for its qualitative assessment in the international market.
A part from PMDC, the three numbers of leases have been granted to bring prosperity and economic uplift in the region in addition to earning foreign exchange to the national exchequer.