Briefs – March 2005

• Granite production in Pakistan may expand as two Australian companies announced plans on Jan. 13 for a coal-fired power plant and stone quarries in the Sindh province. Irfanullah Marwat, the province’s mining minister, noted that the combined granite reserves in the Thar and Sonda regions are now at 8 billion tons. Also, trade ministers from Pakistan and Italy recently agreed in January to increase the trade in marble, among other goods.