Chinese company to explore iron reserves in Chiniot

LAHORE – A historic agreement was signed between Punjab government and Chinese company Metallurgical Corporation for exploring iron reserves in Rajua, Chiniot on Wednesday.
According to the agreement, the Chinese company will give final opinion about the quality and quantity of the iron deposits under the land within 10 months. This agreement will pave the way for setting up first Pakistani steel mill in Punjab to be run with local iron. Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Provincial Minister for Mineral Chaudhary Sher Ali, Chairman Punjab Mineral Corporation Sumar Mubarrak Mand, Secretary Mineral Development Dr Arshad Mehmood and officials of Chinese company were present.
While addressing a public meeting on the occasion of signing of the agreement with a Chinese company for exploring iron reserves at Municipal Hockey Stadium Chiniot, Shahbaz Sharif said that it is unfortunate that despite the fact that our country is rich in mineral resources, we are carrying begging bowl all over the world. Shahbaz Sharif said PML-N government has given up this practice and the height of development will be achieved through benefiting from indigenous resources, Pakistan will be made self-reliant and the Chiniot agreement is an important step in this direction. Shahbaz Sharif said during the era of dictator Pervez Musharraf, the contract of this important project was given to an unknown American company of a Pakistani at throwaway price illegally and without observing rules and regulations which was very unfortunate but the present government paid attention to this fraud and forced the thieves and dacoits to run away and the court also gave verdict keeping in view country’ interest.
The Chief Minister said, “We worked round the clock for forwarding this project and three secretaries of Mineral Department, who showed negligence in implementation of the project of mineral reserves, were transferred to other provinces.” He said that those officers who cannot serve the people are his enemy. Shahbaz Sharif said that today he is successful before the people of Chiniot as the agreement has been made with the Chinese company. He said that some people are of the view that there are no reserves of oil and gas in the Punjab but with the blessings of Allah Almighty the land of Chiniot is rich in mineral resources. He said that a target of 10 months instead of 18 months has been given to Chinese company to explore the iron reserves. He said that if these resources were explored in the land of saints, the destiny of Pakistani generation will be changed.
He said that if iron reserves of high quality were explored, a big steel mill of the world will be set up in this area and job opportunities will be available to the local young engineers. He said the iron reserves will be explored within a short period. Shahbaz Sharif said that three or four friendly countries have always supported Pakistan and China is one of them which always played important role in the development of Pakistan. Shahbaz Sharif said that during his visit to China in February, Chinese leadership announced to provide a sum of 32 billion dollars for various projects in Pakistan which is the biggest economic package in the history of the country.
He said that Saudi Arabia has also given a gift of one and a half billion dollars to Pakistan without any condition which reflects complete confidence of Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah in the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He paid tributes to Chairman Punjab Mineral Corporation Samar Mubarrak Mand who fully assisted in making atomic bomb and expressed the hope that Samar Mubarrak Mand will also play his fullest and effective role in exploring iron reserves in Chiniot.  Earlier, representative of Metallurgical Corporation of China Yu Jiangi said that his company is not a stranger in Pakistan and has been participating in the process of development of Pakistan since 1980. Chairman Punjab Mineral Corporation Samar Mubarrak Mand said that utilization of modern technology through better education is the guarantee to a glorious future for the nation. He described completion of Chiniot project as very useful for the economy of Pakistan and expressed the hope that copper reserves would also be discovered. He said that gold and silver can also be found with copper.