State-owned Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL) signed a deal Monday with Germania-Trest Consortium (GTC) to produce 9.2million tonnesof hard rock worth almost Tk20.7bn in next six years.
MGMCL company secretary Shah Mohammed RezwanulHaque and GTC representative Serazul Islam Kazi signed the operation andmanagement deal at a city hotel.
State Minister for Power and Energy MuhammedEnamulHuq, StateMinister for Land Mostafizur Rahman, Petrobangla Chairman Prof HossainMansur, JSC TrestShakhtosPetsstroy Chairman Start Sau and seniorofficials concerned attended the signing of the $171.86 million contract.
The MGMCL, a Petrobangla subsidiary, is the country’s only hard rock quarry producing high quality hard rock consumed mostly in roads and railway infrastructures.
MGMCL Managing Director Mohammed Moinuddin said the GTC will work asa contractor to develop and operate the mine. It will help the state-owned company upgrade technology to increase hard rock production to 5,000 tonnesper day from900 tonnes at present, he added.
As per the contract, the GTC will produce 9.2 million tonnes of hard rock during the contract period at a cost about $17.23 per tonne, the MD said.
The hard rock mine at Maddhapara of Parbatipur in Dinajpur district was discovered by Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) in 1974 at a depth of 136 metres.
