GSB set to start study on river sand for strategic minerals soon

Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) is set to conduct a study of the sediments in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river systems soon to identify and assess the economic value of strategic minerals in Bangladesh's river sand.
Director General of GSB Dr Nehal Uddin told The Daily Observer on Monday that, to assess the extent, reserve, mode of occurrence and economic viability of mineral sand in the river, the GSB received the clearance from the Energy division and a fund last month.
"Now we could be able to determine the value of minerals in river sand," Dr Nehal said.
He said that the GSB will conduct a study of the sediments in the GBM river systems for commercial exploitation of mineral sands for the first time in the country, we had already taken up a project
to identify the minerals present, quantify the total reserves of sand deposits to determine the contents and quality of economic minerals and its market demands at home and abroad," he further said.
According to him, the previous studies have found a considerable amount of heavy metals like uranium and monazite in Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna sand.
According to the Energy Ministry sources, the Australian Department of External Affairs, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Canberra and EH MacDonald carried out survey in  1968 at Cox's Bazar, Teknaf and Badarmokam at the request of the then Pakistan government.
The survey report said that the average percentage of the heavy minerals in the beach is estimated at 23 in number and the total reserve is about 4.40 million tonnes, of which valuable heavy minerals amount to 1.7 million tonnes.
"The beach placers are found on contemporary or ancient beaches or found along the coast lines. The placer concentrates usually contains valuable minerals like gold, tin, titanium, zircon, rutile, ilemenite, leucoxene, monazite, garnet etc. In Bangladesh the beach placers include zircon, rutile, ilemenite, leucoxene, monazite, garnet, magnetite etc. These minerals are resistant to weathering and have higher specific gravity and hence called heavy minerals," Dr Nehal said.
Earlier, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved Tk35.63 crore for the study.
The beach minerals were discovered by the Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB), formerly the Geological Survey of Pakistan, in 1961. After detection of radioactive properties in some of the minerals like monazite and zircon at Cox's Bazar beach, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), the then Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, took the initiatives to develop these deposits in 1965 (At that time GSB and BAEC were under the Same Ministry) and carried out some preliminary surveys. BAEC conducted a detailed survey in 1965-67.
According to the sources, this time the GSB is set to conduct the study in the coastal areas and shallow sea bed areas as it observed that these areas have huge potential for exploring heavy minerals.
The project site will also include Greater Mymensingh, Tangail, Sylhet, Dhaka, Comilla, Noakhali, Chittagong and Bhola districts.