High Level Meeting between Mineral Development Department and National Centre of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar on Mineral Sector Development of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Honorable Minister, Mr. Arif Ahmadzai, Secretary, Mr. Humayun Khan, and Director Exploration, Mr. Aamir Khan of the Mineral Development Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the Vice Chancellor University of Peshawar, Prof. Dr. Muhmmad Idrees paid a special visit to the National Centre of Excellence in Geology (NCEG), University of Peshawar. Dr. Liaqat Ali Director and the senior faculty (Prof. Dr. Tahir Shah and Dr. M. Hanif) of the Centre have graciously received the guests. The high-level meeting was held in the Committee room of the Centre which was also attended by all the faculty members of the Centre. It was decided that for the sustainable development of natural resources and policy reforms, MoU will be signed between Mineral Development Department and NCEG in order to account for exploration, assessment, identification and grade evaluation of mines and minerals in the KP, and will provide technical report for the grant, renewal of leases and any other related developmental work. The state-of-the-art labs of the NCEG will be used for testing and mineral analysis. The expertise of the experienced faculty of the NCEG will be utilized to boost the exploration activities and identification of potential zones for economic mineral deposits and to develop geological data bases as per requirement of the Industry / Investors. Moreover, joint workshops, and conferences on minerals and mines will also be organized for bringing international resource persons in order to develop the mineral sector of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in line with international standards.
In the end, the Honorable Minister and Secretary Mineral Development Department ensured their support in the development of sustainable model in joint venture with the NCEG, which will greatly help to overcome the financial issues of the Centre in future.