Production of rock halted since May 1

Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Limited (MGMCL) has halted hard rock production since May 1 due to a lack of the explosives needed to extract the material from underground, according to company officials.

This is the second time this year that MGMCL's activities have been disrupted for the same reason.

Germania Trest Consortium (GTC), the company contracted by MGMCL to procure and maintain its mine in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur, had earlier suspended production on March 12 after its cache of explosives ran dry.

MGMCL is responsible for supplying the necessary explosives to GTC so that the consortium between Germania Corporation Limited of Bangladesh and JSC Trest Shakhtospetssroy, a Belarusian state concern for oil and chemistry, can carry out its activities as per the related contract.

Production eventually resumed on March 28 after a shipment of explosives arrived from Thailand but as the supply gradually depleted, GTC was forced to halt its production once again on May 1.

Sources at MGMCL say the mine needs Tk 5-6 crore worth of explosives annually to extract rock from underground. Different countries such as Australia, India and China are primary sources to attain explosives but the MGMCL authorities continually fail to import them in a timely manner.

As a result, rock production has been disrupted five times so far since the contract was signed with GTC in September 2013.

The mine suffers losses of about Tk 1.5 crore for each day that rock extraction activities remain halted due to the lack of explosives.

The authorities of MGMCL said an impromptu action was taken to transfer three employees for their alleged failure to procure the required explosives on time.

All three of the people in question were transferred on April 12.

Considering the high demand for the key construction material, MGMCL's stockyard now bears a barren look as production remains suspended.

Sources at MGMCL say there are only around 50,000 tonnes of rock left in the stockyard.

The 5/20 size rock has the highest demand but MGMCL currently does not have any in stock and so, daily sales have dropped significantly, they said.

Pinak Iqbal, general manager of production at MGMCL, refused to comment on the issue at first but eventually informed that production remains suspended for the explosive shortage.