GCM sees light at end of Phulbari tunnel
Sunday, 12 December 2010
FE Report
GCM Resources has said its prospect of extracting coal from Phulbari mine through open-pit method has brightened after the technology got the backing of a key parliamentary body.
Chairman of the London stock exchange-listed company Gerard Holden said Bangladesh's parliamentary standing committee on energy had backed open cast extraction of coal from the country's mines late last month.
Holden told the company's annual general meeting in London last week that company chief executive Steve Bywater had accompanied the committee members in their recent visit to existing open pit mines and coal-fired power stations.
"Following this visit the Committee recommended last week that the country moves to extraction of its coal reserves using open cut mining methods," Holden said, according to the web-posting of the GCM.
".. we remain confident that approval (to extract coal from the mine) will be forthcoming," he said, adding there is "universal acceptance" among "the key players within the Bangladesh government" that coal has unique role to play in its energy requirements.
Formerly known as Asia Energy, GCM Resources is a London-based mining company listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the LSE. It has done feasibility study of the Phulbari mine in northern Dinajpur district and has primary rights to operate the mine.
The company's move to mine the coalfield -- one of the largest in the country -- through open-pit method and secure a final Scheme of Development approval for mining suffered a blow in August 2006 when three people died while protesting the controversial technology.
Left leaning groups have warned the government not to allow open-cut extraction of coal from the mine, saying the method will force eviction of tens of thousands of villagers including indigenous people from the area.
Holden has admitted that securing permission to extract coal from the mine remains a "political decision", but he is confident as time passes the case for developing the project becomes even more compelling.
"Similarly, it is now accepted that open pit mining is the only feasible means of delivering the volumes of coal required in an economically, socially and environmentally acceptable way," he said.
"Whereas there was once a view that (Bangladesh's) future generation capacity would be based on gas, it is now evident that known gas reserves are insufficient and that extraction of the country's substantial coal reserves is the most viable option," he added.
Bangladesh has been reeling under acute gas crisis since 2008 when demand overtook supply, prompting calls by some experts to extract coal from the country's five big mines and use the mineral to produce electricity.
They say coal-fired power is cheap and can solve the country's energy crisis for many decades to come.
The government has said it would decide on the fate of Phulbari mine after it adopts a wide-ranging national coal policy that it says will also solve the key question on mining method.
Toufique-E- Elahi Chowdhury, the energy advisor to the prime minister, last week rejected a local media report as "baseless and false" that he had given go-ahead to open-cut mining at Phulbari.
GCM Resources has said its prospect of extracting coal from Phulbari mine through open-pit method has brightened after the technology got the backing of a key parliamentary body.
Chairman of the London stock exchange-listed company Gerard Holden said Bangladesh's parliamentary standing committee on energy had backed open cast extraction of coal from the country's mines late last month.
Holden told the company's annual general meeting in London last week that company chief executive Steve Bywater had accompanied the committee members in their recent visit to existing open pit mines and coal-fired power stations.
"Following this visit the Committee recommended last week that the country moves to extraction of its coal reserves using open cut mining methods," Holden said, according to the web-posting of the GCM.
".. we remain confident that approval (to extract coal from the mine) will be forthcoming," he said, adding there is "universal acceptance" among "the key players within the Bangladesh government" that coal has unique role to play in its energy requirements.
Formerly known as Asia Energy, GCM Resources is a London-based mining company listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the LSE. It has done feasibility study of the Phulbari mine in northern Dinajpur district and has primary rights to operate the mine.
The company's move to mine the coalfield -- one of the largest in the country -- through open-pit method and secure a final Scheme of Development approval for mining suffered a blow in August 2006 when three people died while protesting the controversial technology.
Left leaning groups have warned the government not to allow open-cut extraction of coal from the mine, saying the method will force eviction of tens of thousands of villagers including indigenous people from the area.
Holden has admitted that securing permission to extract coal from the mine remains a "political decision", but he is confident as time passes the case for developing the project becomes even more compelling.
"Similarly, it is now accepted that open pit mining is the only feasible means of delivering the volumes of coal required in an economically, socially and environmentally acceptable way," he said.
"Whereas there was once a view that (Bangladesh's) future generation capacity would be based on gas, it is now evident that known gas reserves are insufficient and that extraction of the country's substantial coal reserves is the most viable option," he added.
Bangladesh has been reeling under acute gas crisis since 2008 when demand overtook supply, prompting calls by some experts to extract coal from the country's five big mines and use the mineral to produce electricity.
They say coal-fired power is cheap and can solve the country's energy crisis for many decades to come.
The government has said it would decide on the fate of Phulbari mine after it adopts a wide-ranging national coal policy that it says will also solve the key question on mining method.
Toufique-E- Elahi Chowdhury, the energy advisor to the prime minister, last week rejected a local media report as "baseless and false" that he had given go-ahead to open-cut mining at Phulbari.