Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL), the only hard rock mining company in the country, is going to sign a contract tomorrow with Germania-Trest Consortium (GTC) to operate the mine.
Germania-Trest is a consortium between Bangladesh-based Germania Corporation Limited and Belarus-based JSC Trest Shakhtos Petsstroy.
Managing Director of MGMCL, Mohammad Moinuddin told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are going to sign a six-year-long contract with GTC worth $171.86m for the operation and development of MGMCL. Over the period approximately 9.2m tonnes of hard rock would be produced from the mine.”
Following an international tender in June last year, five companies showed their interests. Of them GTC was selected after a thorough evaluation of their proposal, officials said.
“In the first year of production, the contractor will extract 900,000 tonnes of hard rocks, while in the second year 1.4m tonnes, in the third 1.6m tonnes, in the fourth 1.7m tonnes and in the fifth and sixth year 1.8 m tonnes each,” Moinuddin said.
According to the proposed contract, room and pillar and sub-level drift-stoping method will be used for producing hard rocks from the quarry.
The production and development costs are estimated to be $17.23 per tonne, officials said.
Currently, MGMCL, a subsidiary of state-owned Petrobangla, sells hard rock to different government entities, including the Public Works Department (PWD), Roads and Highways Department, Water Development Board and Bangladesh Railway.
Deposits of hard rock were discovered 136 metres under the ground by Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) at Maddhapara, Parbatipur of Dinajpur district in 1974 while North Korean company South South cooperation corporation (NAMNAM) started developing the mine under a suppliers’ credit contract in 1994.
According to the contract, the completion of the Maddhapara mining project was due in June, 2001, but the contractor missed the deadline and time of completion of the project was extended several times.
Ultimately, on July 2007, the MGMCL took over the mine after issuing conditional acceptance certificate to NAMNAM with development works completed substantially, and started commercial production in a single shift under its own management. At present, rock is produced from a depth of 320 metres through two shafts (cage and skip).
NAMNAM had developed five stopes having length of 230 metres, with 20 metres width and 60 metres height during the development of the mine.
There has been no further development of new stope. If new stopes are not developed, production of the mine will be stopped in two or three years, said managing director of MGMCL.
The new consortium will develop 12 new stopes in three phases, he added.
Officials said under the new contract, the mine will gradually be able to produce 5,500 tonnes of rock in three shifts every day, raising the annual output to 1.533m tonnes. At present, the production of rocks has been confined to around 1250 tonnes a day in a single shift.
Steps have already been made to appoint a mine management contractor to produce rock in three shifts daily. The initiative will lead MGMCL into a profitable company in two to three years, the managing director hoped.
Maddhapara Granite Mine covers an area of 1.2 square kilometres with potential mineable reserves of about 174 million tonnes.
At present, it produces about 350,000 tonnes of hard rock against the country’s demand for about 7m tonnes per year.
The mining authority sells boulder rocks (larger than 250mm) at $20 per tonne and crushed rock (60mm to 20mm) at$22 to $26 per tonne.
According to sources, boulder rocks remain unsold due to its extra-large size, but demand for crushed granite is increasing in the local market.
