PESHAWAR, Dec 28: Fragile security and inter-tribal disputes are hampering government’s efforts to bring foreign investment to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) to explore minerals, gas and oil deposits in the 600km-long strip bordering Afghanistan, sources say.

“Certainly, Fata has vast metal, mineral, oil and gas reserves, but neither local investors nor foreign entrepreneurs are willing to invest in this region because of the security situation and disputes among tribes over the ownership of the deposits,” said Minerals Director Mohammad Yaqoob Shah.

He said investors from Australia, Sweden and other countries had shown interest in investing in the minerals sector, particularly in the exploration of copper, but lawlessness was discouraging them.Officials in the minerals directorate in the Fata civil secretariat said that big deposits of copper, marble, coal, soapstone, chromites and other metals had been explored in different parts of the region.

The federal government recently awarded licence to a multinational company for the exploration of oil and gas in North Waziristan Agency and its adjacent Bannu Frontier Region.

South Waziristan is said to have vast prospects for oil and gas deposits and the area has been leased out to the Tullo Company for exploration of these reserves.

The government will conduct a survey in Peshawar and Kohat Frontier Regions and Khyber Agency for the exploration of oil and gas.

The directorate conducted a geological survey in North Waziristan and found about 35,000 million tons of reserves of copper in Boya, about 25km west of Miramshah.

The local tribes, officials said, had agreed to allow exploration of copper deposits with 20 per cent share.

“Both public and private sectors lack resources and technical expertise to explore these deposits, so we need foreign investment,” Mr Shah said.

He said that current price of copper was $ 6,795 per ton in the London market and it was forecast that it could jump to $11,000 in 2007.

Geologists have already detected 7,000 tons of marble, eight million tons of coal, 537,000 million tons of silica sand, 5,000 million tons of magnesite, 3.6 million tons of soapstone, 20,000 million tons of gypsum and massive reserves of limestone in different areas of Fata.

The federal government recently set up the Fata Development Authority and its main task is to explore the mineral sector but the authority is yet to take off.

The authority could do nothing if the lawlessness continued, especially in Waziristan where local authorities could not even carry out community development schemes, said an official.

“When the army cannot move from the barracks to start development schemes do you think the investors will invest in such a region?” he asked.Officials said that unlike other areas in the country the mineral reserves in Fata did not belong to the state and relevant laws had not been implemented in the region to check illegal mining.

In Mohmand Agency there are disputes over the ownership of marble reserves, while in Dara Adamkhel and Orakzai Agency tribesmen have disputes over coal mines.

Officials said haphazard mining was destroying the reserves.

According to official estimates, 70 per cent of the marble is wasted because of ill-planned mining but authorities are unable to stop plunder of the natural resources.

Recently, a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation for a geological survey of the region.