Madhyapara mining firm, importers lock horns

Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL) is facing serious resistance from the hard rock importers' as the mine is allegedly threatening their trade, that eventually saves between $38 million and $58 million a year to the government exchequer.
Madhyapara Hard Rock Mine, country's lone hard rock mining has been lying out of operation for a year.
This is not a unique occurrence, since 2004, when it started its operation it has been facing man-made disasters and had stopped its production many times only to make a room for the importers to grow their business.
A senior official of the Energy Ministry told the daily Observer on Monday preferring anonymity that, "The contractors halted production this time allegedly due to liquidity crisis. But in reality faulty supervision has created the disaster."
He said the price of MGMLC (lower range and upper range) rocks compared to imported rocks showed a clear picture in this regard. Usually the price of MGMCL remains between $US 22.50 to $US 24.50 but when MGMCL goes out of operation it stands at $US 31-34. Which showcases a clear-cut motive of shut down of MGMCL due to different cause and time, he added.
In 2004, Petrobangla signed a contract with North Korean Company NAMANAM to reduce dependency on hard rock import and planned to produce 1.6 million tonnes of granite against an annual demand of 3.4 million tonnes. Although granite will not be cheaper than the rocks usually imported from India but could save between $38 million and $58 million a year.
"Firstly it was said that the company is facing serious liquidity crisis, later it was found that the contractors were involved in monitory misdeed. However, labour unrest was a regular problem and finally all these odds made sure the failure of this project�later, in 2013 we signed a fresh agreement with Germania-Trest Consortium (GTC) to operate the mine to increase its production, however, it is now producing 3,500 tonnes of hard rock a day. Earlier, the production rate was only 500 tonnes," an official said.
But a year later, hard rock mine project started crawling which had been extracting Tk 1024crore granite and selling it to selected consumers.
 GTC submitted a requisition to MGMCL demanding Tk 144 crore to import required machinery on December 2014. It created some discrepancy between MGMCL and GTC which prolonged the machinery import.
"As the government found wrong estimation and did not approve the procurement, since 23rd September, 2015 the contractor company of the mining field named Germania-Trest
Consortium (GTC) shut down the operation," a senior official of MGMCL said.
GTC is a consortium formed in between JSC Trest Shakhtospetssroy (Belarusian state concern for oil and chemistry) and Germania Corporation Limited (a Bangladesh-based company). It has been formed especially for the Management and Operation of the Maddhapara Hard
Rock Mine in Parbatipur, Dinajpur. Under a six-year contract, they are responsible to produce nine million tonnes of rock.
When asked about the fate of MGMCL, Managing Director of MGMCL Engr. Md Nowshad Islam said "We have set to start operation from October 20, hopefully we could resume our production from 12 new stopes in three phases," he added.
NAMNAM had developed five stopes with 230 metres in length, 20 metres in width and 60 metres in height during the development of the mine. However, the new consortium will develop 12 new stopes.
Officials said under the new contract, the mine will gradually be able to produce 5,500 tonnes of rock in three shifts every day, raising the annual output to 1.533m tonnes. At present, the production of rocks has been confined to around 1250 tonnes a day in a single shift. But who will ensure the continuity of this project, he questioned.
Petrobangla, the state-owned Oil and Gas Exploration Corporation is set to go for expansion of Madhyapara Hard Rock mine to supply rocks for the construction work of Padma Bridge.
Madhyapara Granite Mine covers an area of 1.2 square kilometres with potential mineable reserves of about 174 million tonnes. At present, it produces about 350,000 tonnes of hard rock against the country's demand for about 7m tonnes per year. The mining authority sells boulder rocks (larger than 250mm) at $20 per ton and crushes rock (60mm to 20mm) at $22-$26 per ton.