Hard rock mine at risk of closure

Production at the country's lone hard-rock mine at Maddhyapara in northern Dinajpur is at risk of closure as the government is yet to appoint a contractor to continue its operation, officials said.

The deal with the existing contractor will expire on September 2 next.

Under the current term, a contractor must be appointed at least six months before the expiry of the existing deal.

The contractor carries out the management of the operation and development, production, and maintenance of the mine.

The government is yet to decide whether a new contractor will be appointed or the existing one will continue working, a senior official of the state-run Maddhyapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL) told the FE on Sunday.

"If the government cannot appoint a contractor within the timeline, the MGMCL will be in crisis and the mining of hard rock will halt", the official feared.

Implementation of the country's several mega-projects like Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Payra power plant, Matarbari power plants, and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport's third terminal will be affected as construction of the projects depend on the hard-rock mine.

Several hundred workers and employees of the MGMCL might also become unemployed if production at the mine ceased.

Germania-Trest Consortium (GTC) is currently operating the Maddhapara mine.

The contract tenure of the GTC, a consortium between Bangladesh-based Germania Corporation Ltd and Belarus-based JSC Trest Shakhtos Petsstroy, initially expired on February 14, 2020.

But the GTC was allowed to continue operation until September 2, considering the Covid-19 pandemic along with several other relevant issues.

The MGMCL also had floated international tenders several times to appoint a new contractor, but did not get sufficient response due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown.

"Efforts were continuing and this will be finalised before the deal expires", said a top MGMCL official.

There are, however, allegations that a decision to appoint a contractor was being delayed due to some unscrupulous people who want to push the company into crisis.

Contractors of different development works also were active for importing low-quality stones from abroad instead of using the local stone being supplied by the state-owned company.

A syndicate is allegedly active to import low-quality hard rock by manipulating the import procedure to avoid taxes. It resulted in less-than- expected sales of MGMCL's granite, sources said. State-run Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) discovered the hard -rock mine 136 meters under the ground at Maddhyapara, Parbatipur, of Dinajpur district in 1974.

The Maddhyapara mine area spans over 1.2 square kilometres and has a reserve of around 174 million tonnes of hard rock and granite.

North Korean company Namnam prepared and developed the mine in 2006 after working for over 12 years under North Korean supplier's credit.

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