INTRODUCTION
Pakistan, the sixth, largest country in the world in terms of the resident population and a land of rich natural resources is a growing country showing great potential and promise in its dimension stone sector, specially in marble, granite and onyx.

Though Pakistan's onyx has a long history from the commercial point of view, as the material was supplied to Italy even half a century ago, its marble and granite sector was in a dormant stage.

Pakistan has major deposits of high quality marble and granite in a wide range of colours, shades and patterns, which so far could not be exploited due to lack of modern quarrying and manufacturing facilities. This hindered the development of marble and granite sector. Despite being accorded the status of industry over a decade ago it failed to develop on organised lines.

At quarrying level, productivity has been suffering from indiscriminate blasting, poor quarrying techniques and lack of infrastructure for handling and transportation. On the processing side the industry has been suffering from lack of modern technology and skills limiting value addition. This makes it difficult for domestic products to compete with imported products on quality as well as price level.

The importance of Pakistan's marble and granite industry came into focus after UNO acknowledged marble and granite as being suitable for starting up development programmes in Pakistan.

Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC), a public limited company and subsidiary of Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation, has initiated many projects to uplift the existing set-up of marble and granite sector. These projects are set-up according to the best international practices, employment of the latest technology and technical studies. These projects will transform Pakistan's dimension sector to a great extent. Model quarries are also under plan so that other quarry owners may get motivated. Common Facility and Training Centre (CFTC) is also under consideration to infuse new blood and give, new dimension to Pakistan's stone industry. Establishment of marble cities by PASDEC in Pakistan is in progress.

Public and private establishments with the support of concerning ministries are on the verge of giving new turn to Pakistan's dimension stone industry and make its product competitive in the international market.

DEPOSITS / RESERVES
Almost all provinces in Pakistan have ornamental stone deposits in wide range of colours, shades and patterns. Initial estimates indicate 166 billion tonnes of marble reserves across Pakistan. In North West Frontier Province (NWFP) the Malakand, Mardan, Hazara, Peshawar and Kohat divisions are high potential areas where quarrying is already taking place. Mohmand Khyber, Bajaur, Orakzai, Kurrani agencies in FATA have considerable quantity of marble. Balochistan has rich confirmed deposits of both marble and granite in Khuzdar, Loralai, Lasbela and Chaghai districts. In Punjab ornamental stone quarries operate in Khushab and Miawali. Sindh boasts of gold (Black Gold) coloured stone which is highly prized in the global market.

Large deposits of Onyx occur in Pakistan. Accordingly to Geological Survey of Pakistan proved reserves of green onyx in Chaghai district, and of other shades in Peshawar region, total about 34 million cubic metres.

NORTH WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE
97 per cent of country's marble deposits are located here :
•    Nauser Marble Deposits
Located at a distance of 1 km     north-east of the Nauser village     the deposits extend in south to about 3 km.

•    The Nowshera Marble Cluster
It is located in the north of Nowshera town in a length of 2.5 km taking average width of 400 metres and extends in a nearby east-west direction.

•    The Swabi Marble Deposits
It is located near Maneri and Ghundai Tarako. At Maneri deposits are found in the mountains lying between Maneri and Salim Khan village about 1 km north of Swabi town. The Ghundai Tarako marble deposits lie about 11 km to the north-west of Swabi town covering 1.75 km long and 5 km wide area.

•    The Swat Marble Deposits
The deposits are located at Barikot, Shangla and Manglaur-Malam Jaba road in the north. The Barikot marble deposits are located along the main Swat road, while the Shangla deposits are located in district Shangla par in Swat region.

Swat marble is medium grained. Pure white marble of Sara along Malam Jaba in Swat is almost pure with 90 per cent calcite, 8 per cent mica and traces of quartz.

•    The Khyber Agency Deposits
The deposits are located at Shahid Banda and Kambela. The reserves are 200 metres thick on an average and 1,000 metres in length. The two varieties of marble available here are medium to coarse grained and take good polish.

•    The Swab Stone Deposits
The Swab area comprises crystalline limestone, marble, dolomite, quartzite and dolerite dikes. The marble is compact and thin to medium bedded and highly fractured. It is used as crushed material and as building stone.

CHITRAL
The marble available in Chitral is of white, grey, pink, and black colour. White marble is medium- grained crystalline, grey marble is compact in comparison to white marble and pink marble is fine-grained. The black marble is much harder as compared to the other three varieties.

Huge deposits of Pakistan's world famous marble varieties, golden marble and coral marble are available in province of Sindh in Pakistan. Mines of golden marble are located at Sonda in district Thatta, situated 125 km from Karachi. The estimated deposits of golden marble amount to over 50 million tonnes. Mines of coral marble are located at Thano Bula Khan in District Dadu, situated 200 km from Karachi. The mines contain over 75 million tonnes of coral marble.

PRESENT SCENARIO
Despite over 166 billion tonnes of reserves, more than 70 types of marble and granite available, 1,225 operational mines and more than 2,000 processing factories, the marble and granite industry in Pakistan is quite underdeveloped. The absence of scientific mining and processing due to lack of know-how, trained manpower and proper equipment is resulting in low productivity, low selling price, poor margins and weak competitive position in the export market.

Ministry of Industries and Production has taken several initiatives to develop the emerging stone sector and transform it into a modern, competitive and knowledge based industry. PASDEC is striving to implement several measures aiming to bring into reality the vision of rapid growth and development of the stone sector.

At present most of the stone quarries in Pakistan are operating with old techniques of blasting and do not have basic machinery and equipment like compressors, drill sets, diamond wire saws  and lifters, which is causing colossal wastage to the level of 75 per cent at extraction stage.

On the processing side there are very few processing units with a complete range of machinery and equipment capable of processing stone in accordance with international standards. Utilisation of these units is barely half of their installed capacity due to lack of appropriate raw material and lack of technical skills.

Most of the production of dimension stone in Pakistan is consumed in the domestic market, leaving a small percentage for export. The export during the last four years has significantly increased in marble and granite sector, which is estimated at US$ 35,814,000 in 2008-2009.
DEVELOPMENT & PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
PASDEC, aiming to make Pakistan dimension stone industry globally competitive and socially responsible, has embarked to implement its marble and granite strategy modeled on the concept of public-private partnership in which the private sector has been given a lead role in running the affairs of Government funded company.

Under its development plans PASDEC is establishing 4 marble cities besides setting up of 10 model quarries in various parts of the country such as in FATA, Lora Lai, Risalpur and Chitral, which is supposed to generate revenue over Rs. 1 billion every month. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has already given approval for acquisition of loan of Rs. 400 million to be utilised for the projects. The Pakistan Government also has plans to extend marble city projects to three more cities which include Karachi, Islamabad, and Guddani.

Marble cities are being established in the vicinity of mines incorporating :
•    Training centres with state of the art processing technology
•    Engineering units to support the industry in upgrading technology.
•    Warehousing facility to ensure an efficient inventory of raw material.
•    Minimum quarry standards at the extraction stage.
•    Minimum quality standards across rest of value chain.

The marble city projects will have a Common Facility & Training Centres (CFTC's) for training local managers, workforce and technicians. CFTC's will also have a mosaic development centre to provide industrial training in marble mosaic handicrafts and inlays from industrial waste. It will also provide facilities like cutting, polishing and sizing to private sectors on agreed rates.
The marble city project will be developing high end industry base. PASDEC has been directed by the Federal Ministery for Industries and Production to immediately start the development work on marble city in Risalpur so that industrial development is set in motion.

Under its quarry development programme PASDEC is developing mechanised model marble quarries at different potential areas. The programme has already received overwhelming and tremendous support from the private sector. Once quarries start operating fully, each quarry is supposed to  yield around 5,000 tonnes of the material per month. Model quarry development work has already begun at Chitral, while first model quarry at Khuzdar became operational in May 2008. Upgradation of quarries at Mustang, Thatta, FATA, Buner and Lorallai is in progress. These quarries are already operational.