The contract of Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Ltd (MGMCL) with the existing operator is due to expire on September 2.
The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources is yet to take a decision on extending the current contract or appointing a new contractor for the state-run company.
Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for the ministry, has said that his ministry is yet to take any decision in this regard, reports UNB.
"We’ll take a call only after consultation with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," he said.
The Belarus-based Germania Trest Consortium (GTC) has been operating and maintaining the mine since September 2013 under a deal worth $171.86 million USD (equivalent to Tk 14.00 billion).
After completion of its tenure, the GTC’s contract was extended by a year by the government considering the COVID-19 pandemic situation.
Official sources said if no firm decision is made over the issue before the expiry of the existing contract, the country’s lone rock mining company will be in crisis and mining of the rock will have to be suspended.
They said civil construction works of a number of mega projects including Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Payra Plant, Matarbari Plant and the construction of Hazrat Shahjalal Airport’s third terminal will be in trouble as works of these projects depend on the supply of rocks from the Madhyapara Granite Mining Company.
Besides, if the company is closed, more than 700 workers and employees will become unemployed, said an official.
Officials said the nearby Barapukuria Coal Mine in Dinajpur faced the same situation as the deal with China-based CMC-XMC Consortium expired on 10 August. Two-thirds of the employees and workers at the coal mine lost their jobs.
A top official of the mine said, “The efforts are continuing and this will be finalised before the deal expires. We are working to complete it within the time so the activities of the company do not be hampered.”
He said the international tender was floated several times to appoint a contractor for this company, but foreign companies are found to be reluctant to come to Bangladesh amid the Coronavirus situation.
A mining industry source alleged the decision to appoint a contractor was being delayed due to an unscrupulous section of the officials who want to put the company into crisis.
“This corrupt syndicate wants to capitalise the crisis situation to appoint a contractor of choice from their ill motive”, he added.
The annual report of the company shows that after a repeated loss of the previous 10 years, MGMCL has recorded a profit in the past two financial years for the first time since it began commercial operations in 2007.
The company made a profit of Tk 70 million in 2018-19 and Tk 220 million in 2019-20 after reporting losses for 11 years, according to its latest annual report.
In the previous fiscal, the company produced a whopping 1.67 million metric tonnes (MT) hard rock and sold 721,000 MT at Tk 163.14 crore. Similarly, it produced 823,000 MT and sold 863,000 MT at Tk 207.81 in 2018-19.
Officials at MGMCL claimed the mine is expected to cross a benchmark of Tk 500 million in its profit margins at the end of the current financial year.
He said the company mined 1.1 trillion tonnes of rock during the time which was 20 per cent higher than the normal time.
