A joint effort between the government and development partners is set to open a centre of excellence that will train miners engaged in marble extraction, in Assosa, Benshangul-Gumuz Regional State.

The Ministry of Mines & Petroleum, in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Italian Embassy, completed the preliminary study last week.

The preliminary study, which took three years to complete, was conducted by a group composed of members from the Ministry, the Italian Embassy and Italian companies that specialise in marble production. The team, which identified a massive marble resource, tabled the finding to the head of the Regional State.

The study aims to minimise the waste of marble during production by training human resources and equipping workers with modern technology, according to Kiros Alemayehu, public relations & communications director at the Ministry.

"Ethiopia imports value-added marble at 10 to 15 times the price of the raw material," said Kiros. "The centre would minimise this cost."

The regional government decided to upgrade one of the technical vocational training and education schools to create the centre. The cost of transforming the TVET into the centre of excellence, which will take a year, will be covered by the Regional State, the Ministry, UNIDO and mining companies that are operating in the area. It will be equipped with modern marble processing machinery and a new curriculum.

"The Regional State will notify us about which vocational school will be used for the centre in the coming two weeks," said Kiros.

Marble is found scattered in different places throughout the country, including Mora, Daletei, Baruda, Parzeite, Manden and Bulene in Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, Hulkani in Tigray Regional State and Mentawoha in the Amhara Regional State.