Production in the country's lone hard-rock mine at Maddhapara under Parbatipur in Dinajpur resumed on Thursday after a hiatus of over four months due to scarcity of explosives.
The state-run Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL) imported explosives - used to crush underground stones for extraction - from neighbouring India to initiate production, a senior Petrobangla official told the FE.
Around 5,500 tonnes of granite would be produced every day from the mine to cater to the growing demand of hard-rock in the country.
Officials said different state-owned enterprises and their subsidiaries, including Bangladesh Railway, Bangladesh Water Development Board, Public Works Department, Bridges Division, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project, and Roads and Highways are the main buyers of hard-rock in the country.
Different private sector entities, like real estate companies and industries, import granite stone, but the quantity is not that significant.
The contractors of different development works in the state-owned entities very often opt for importing low quality stones from abroad instead of using the state-owned company's stones, it has long been alleged.
A syndicate is active to import low quality hard-rock by manipulating import procedure to avoid taxes, resulting in low sale of the MGMCL's granite to consumers, said sources.
Against the backdrop of this low sale, the MGMCL, bestowed with the responsibility to extract hard-rock and sell, sought the energy ministry's intervention several times.
The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources also requested the state-run entities to purchase hard-rock from the company, which did not bring any potential output.
Higher carrying cost of stones through road from the Maddhapara granite mine to buyers' sites across the Jamuna River is also playing a role, they noted.
A rail-track to carry the MGMCL's hard-rock from the mine site has not been in operation for long. Had the railway been operational, it would have reduced stone carrying costs significantly, they added.
The Madhhapara mine area spans over 1.2 square-kilometre area, having a reserve of around 174 million tonnes of hard-rock and granite.
Germania-Trest Consortium (GTC), a consortium of Bangladesh-based Germania Corporation Ltd and Belarus-based JSC Trest Shakhtos Petsstroy, is currently operating the mine under a contract with the MGMCL.
The consortium initiated work in February 2014 to extract around 900,000 tonnes of hard-rock in the first year of operation, 1.4 million tonnes in the second year, 1.6 million tonnes in the third year, 1.7 million in the fourth year, and 1.8 million tonnes in the fifth and sixth year.
North Korean company Namnam prepared and developed the mine in 2006 under North Korean supplier's credit after working for over 12 years.
The state-run Geological Survey of Bangladesh discovered hard-rock 136 metres under the ground at Maddhapara in 1974.
