The country's lone hard rock mine at Maddhapara in northern Dinajpur has finally succeeded in luring potential buyers following intervention by the energy ministry as its sales rose significantly in recent times, officials said.
Sale of hard rocks from the Maddhapara granite mine was only 5,474 tonnes in first six months of its operation. The sales rose to 41,645 tonnes in the later six months during the first year of its operation, company sources said
He said hard rock sale from the mine during the last three and a half months until August 15 was registered at 174,715 tonnes, which were almost four times of its total sales in its first year's of operation.
The company has also received sales orders of around 185,500 tonnes of hard rocks, which would be supplied to the consumers shortly.
"The state-owned enterprises including Bangladesh Railway (BR), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), Public Works Department (PWD) and Roads and Highways (R&H) are the main buyers of the hard rock mine so far," Petrobangla Director on mines and minerals Maqbul-e-Elahi told the FE Monday.
He said many private entrepreneurs especially those of cement manufacturing companies are also coming up to purchase rocks for manufacturing clinker, a substance used for cement production.
"The government intervention has helped salvage the Tk 13 billion state-owned Maddhapara hard rock mine through arranging buyers to ensure its commercial viability," the Petrobangla official said.
Energy ministry officials said failing to sell hard rocks to consumers, Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL), the company bestowed with the responsibility of extracting hard rock and its sale, sought energy ministry's intervention last year.
The energy ministry subsequently arranged an inter-ministerial meeting and asked the SoEs (state-owned enterprises) concerned to purchase hard rocks through respective ministries.
The energy ministry started the MGMCL project in 1994 with the aim that the SoEs including BR, BWDB, PWD and R&H would purchase granite from the Maddhapara mine for their consumption.
But none of these SoEs purchased hard rocks from the Maddhapara in the initial months leading to stockpiling of a huge quantity of granites at the mine mouth, it was alleged.
Its extraction in the recent months have, however, picked up and the company officials are expecting augmented production in the coming days.
The Maddhapara granite mine is now located in an area of around 1.1 square kilometres, having the potential mineable reserves of around 74 million tonnes.
The mine has an annual production capacity of around 1.65 million tonnes against the countrywide demand for hard rocks of around 6.5 million tonnes.
Petrobangla believes that the adjacent areas of Maddhapara mine have enormous rock reserves, which can meet the country's total need for rocks.
Till date the MGMCL extracted only 311,830 tonnes of rocks, said a senior official of the company.
The MGMCL produces different categories of quality hard rocks ranging from below five millimeters to over 300 millimeters.
Hard rocks of the Maddhapara mine are among the oldest and finest quality in the world, the Petrobangla official said.
Prices of the Maddhapara hard rocks range from US$ 5.90 per tonne to $17.90 per tonne.
Sources said North Korean company Namnam prepared and developed the mine after working over 12 years under North Korean supplier's credit.
The original project cost in the first project profile (PP) was Tk. 6.5 billion but it later rose to around Tk 13 billion due to repeated delays by Namnam in completing the project works.
