Maddhapara granite extraction resumes

Granite extraction from mines at Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur resumed yesterday following a 15-day suspension for a lack of explosives.

Maddhapara Granite Mining Company, under state-owned Petrobangla which manages the country's oil, gas and mineral resources, engaged Germania Trest Consortium (GTC) in a contract to develop and maintain its mines.

Under the contract, the Maddhapara company is supposed to supply the GTC with ammonium nitrate, an industrial chemical commonly used as an explosive for quarrying and mining activities.

A senior official of the Maddhapara company, seeking anonymity, confirmed that they had stopped supplying the GTC with the explosives required for which extraction activities were suspended on March 12.

Officials of the Maddhapara company said the situation had stemmed from a global supply shortage of explosives and so mining activities would resume as soon as possible.

A general manager of the company said they have been working to procure explosives for the last six months but have so far failed for various reasons. For example, a tender was floated thrice in the last six months but they did not receive any response from potential bidders.

The Maddhapara company finally procured the explosives from sellers in Thailand and it arrived at the Chattogram port a couple of days ago before reaching the mine site on Saturday.

There is high demand for the rock extracted at Parbatipur among local construction companies as they are of a higher quality yet cheaper than those available in countries such as India and Bhutan. The Maddhapara company extracts around 1 million tonnes of rock each year from three mines.