Tuesday, 03 September 2013

MGMCL signs deal with GTC to produce 9.2m tonnes of hard rock

FE Report

State-owned Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL) signed a deal Monday with Germania-Trest Consortium (GTC) to produce 9.2 million tons of hard rock in the next six years.

MGMCL company secretary Shah Mohammed Rezwanul Haque and GTC representative Dr Serazul Islam Kazi signed the operation and management deal at a city hotel.

State minister for power and energy Muhammed Enamul Huq, state minister for land Mostafizur Rahman, Petrobangla chairman Prof Hossain Monsur, JSC Trest Shakhtos Petsstroy chairman Start Sau and senior concerned officials attended the signing function.

The MGMCL is the country’s only hard rock company, which has been mining rocks from Maddhapara mine in Dinajpur district since 1998. The company is a subsidiary of Petrobangla.

MGMCL managing director Mohammed Moinuddin said the GTC will work as a contractor to develop and operate the mine. It will increase the mine’s hard rock production to 5000 metric tons (mt) per day from the present 900 mt through upgrading its technology and also using modern machinery.

As per the contract, the GTC will work at a project cost US$171.86 million in the next six years. They will produce 9.2 million metric tons of hard rock during the contract period, he said.

The per ton production cost will be about US$16.49 under the new contract, down from present $20 per ton.

The GTC has been selected for the project through a tender process where five international companies contested, but only the GTC qualified for the project.

Mr Moinuddin informed that the GTC will introduce three working shifts throughout the day in the place of the present one shift. As per the contract, room and pillar and sub-level drift-stopping method will be introduced in the mine to upgrade production capacity.

The hard rock mine at Maddhapara was discovered by Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) in 1974 at a depth of 136 metres under the ground at Maddhapara, Parbatipur of Dinajpur district.

From 1994 till 2007, North Korean company South South Cooperation Corporation (NAMNAM) worked as a contractor of the mine. After expiry of its contract, the MGMCL took over the charge and has been producing rocks through its own manpower. Now again, a new contractor will operate the mine through the contract.

Hard rocks of the Maddhapara mine are currently being used mainly for construction of highways, roads, dams and embankments by the Public Works Department (PWD), Roads and Highways Department, Water Development Board and Bangladesh Railway.