An innovative lead of the Mining Department to organise a special display of Jammu Sapphire from Padder Mines of Kishtwar this year has become a star attraction of millions of visitors who have been visiting J&K Pavilion in the ongoing India International Trade Fair 2022 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
Secretary Mining Amit Sharma envisaged this concept to display Jammu Sapphire which is a very precious gem of world class quality at IITF this year wherein public has been visiting in huge numbers everyday and J&K Minerals Corporation led by Managing Director Vikram K Gupta took the initiative to install a stall in J&K Pavilion with a live display of originally extracted Jammu Sapphire Stones here and it has become a centre of attraction for the visitors.
Yesterday, during the celebration of J&K Day here, Chief Secretary Dr Arun K Mehta alongwith other Head of Departments and dignitaries visited this stall displaying live sapphire stones and appreciated this innovative efforts of mining department to attract public towards this rare precious gem extracted in the Jammu region. He further advised that all efforts should be made to polish and make value addition in the sapphire stones inside J&K only so that JKML can fetch maximum value of available gems during upcoming auction. Secretary Mining noted same and assured that needful shall be done at the earliest for end-to-end processing with UT only.
Apart from this, the stall was formally visited by Mining Secretary Amit Sharma yesterday morning wherein he happened to interact with lot of visitors who felt glad to see live display of Sapphire at this stall and got their queries on same addressed at this stall. It is worthwhile to mention here that LED based screen display of live extraction of rare gem Sapphire inside the Padder hills, apart from literature, is helping best to market and brand Jammu Sapphire during the ongoing IITF in a big way.
J&K Minerals Corporation also offered to help genuine buyers to have a detailed look at the extracted sapphire stones once the IITF gets over after due verification. Another heartening fact is that soon, GI tagging of this precious gem of Jammu division shall also take place. Here, Secretary Mining Amit Sharma disclosed that as per broader vision of J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, soon MECL shall begin detailed scientific exploration of Padder Mines on the directions of Ministry of Mines, Government of India so that proper assessment of the quality and quantity of Sapphire Mines can be done in J&K.