African Stone Focus of Int’l Parley

NAIROBI, Kenya – Some forty potential players in the African stone industry met here this month with European industry figures on the possibilities of forming joint ventures in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
The conference, according to a report from Robert Mukombozi in the Daily Monitor of Kampala, Uganda, served as a think-tank session for strategies to grow the stone industry in previously underdeveloped areas. Officials in attendance included the Association of African Stone Producers (Afristone), Brussels-based stone dealer Proinvest and the stone associations of Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Jayant Paunrana, managing director of Kenya’s Athi River Marble and Granite Limited and one of the main organizers of the event, noted before the meeting that it would bring together experts in the mining and construction sectors, and identify major setbacks in those industries as well as draw a joint framework.
“Stone is the last of the untapped resource in Africa,” Paurana noted in an e-mail to the Monitor. “We want this problem to become history. The mineral should not be wasted like it is not valuable. We hope that this conference will address not only owners but also investors of this sector to extract it sensibly with regard to the environment and benefits must go to individual African countries.”