Keeping an open mind on open-pit mining (part one)

German open-pit mines do take a toll on the environment, but there are ways to minimise this. Photo : Sharier Khan

My recent reports on the German experience in coal mining have drawn a lot of attention of a number of people, including some highly qualified professionals involved with the Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN), a network of expatriate experts.
BEN opposes the open-pit mining proposal of Asia Energy on environmental grounds, and therefore its activists have studied the reports to see whether or not the German experience has any relevance for Bangladesh. They concluded that Germany's context is very different from Bangladesh and therefore the examples are irrelevant. They argue that open-pit mines are environmentally disastrous.
They have also assumed that Asia Energy has influenced The Daily Star to file these reports by organising and paying for the trip to Germany at a time when the government is formulating a coal mining policy. I believe this calls for a clarification for the benefit of all the readers.
Firstly, The Daily Star did not accept any expense from Asia Energy and paid fully for the travel and hotel expenses of its correspondent. I admit that the biggest fault of my reports was that I had not talked to any aggrieved person in Germany whose life had been affected by the open-pit mines. I also did not talk to opposing political or environmental activists. My four-day program was designed by Asia Energy in collaboration with German mining company RWE. While such a pre-planned visit allows maximum utilisation of time, it always leaves out some vital aspects. This deprived the readers of some essential viewpoints.
Despite this shortcoming, I believe my reports have been objective. I felt that I have enough information to share with our readers that there is a good example of open-pit mining -- and before we "ban" this method of mining, we should have a second look into the issue.
Asia Energy invited The Daily Star to report on the German mine at a time when coal policy is being formulated with a view to pointing out the German experience before the policy is finalised. This is not an unusual practice. As long as it is done openly and in public view, we can live with it. When the Barapukuria deal was made, nobody invited the press or bothered about public opinion.
The Daily Star did not whimsically choose to accept Asia Energy's invitation as the company is in the centre of a controversy. It sponsored the trip because it believed that there will be some genuine learning by visiting some of the world's best mines and that there will be new knowledge and experience to share with our readers. As a reporter, I was so conscious about what Asia Energy's agenda was that I explicitly mentioned in the report what its stakes were.

Open-pit mining is not synonymous to Asia Energy
Some individuals mix up open-pit mining concept with Asia Energy's interest. While this is true that Asia Energy proposed open-pit mining in Phulbari, this is not true that Asia Energy holds the copyright for such mining in Bangladesh. Open-pit mining method was not discovered by Asia Energy. Talking in favour of open pit mining is not synonymous to favouring Asia Energy.
Open pit mining is a hundred plus years old method that enables large-scale extraction of coal -- and thereby significantly reduce the per ton coal production cost. If open-pit mining of the Phulbari coal zone is the sole reason for opposing Asia Energy -- I vehemently oppose such mindset. If Asia Energy's Phulbari proposal goes against national interest, let's dissect it technically and politically and then trash it.
None of my reports said that open-pit mines are environment friendly. In fact all mines --underground or open-pit -- are threats to environment. BEN should investigate what's going on in Barapukuria's environment and balance its views.
The scale of environmental damage is proportional. In underground mines, the production is low and the proportion of environment damage is also low -- if badly planned. In open pits, the production is very high and the proportion of environmental damage is very high -- if badly planned. In both cases, damage is mainly done in handling the underground water tables. If carelessly discharged, the water from any coal mine will have some negative impact.
A Bangladeshi geologist from US wrote in The Daily Star that the residual lakes created in Germany after an open-pit mine is complete cannot have fisheries because of presence of harmful heavy metal and other chemicals. I beg to differ. These lakes have fisheries and used by the public as recreational resorts. People are swimming there and you can see the fish. They have applied proper hydro-engineering to achieve this level of safety. But the water is not used for drinking -- as its not completely safe. Time will make it completely safe. I would like to point out that irresponsible mining has damaged many water bodies and rivers in countries like the US. Despite a lot of measures, coal mines still do have its pitfalls.
This is why we should learn from the best practices. We need the coal for our energy security. We don't want to spend Tk 1,600 crore for a mine like Barapukuria, then keep on importing coal to run a small 250 mw power plant, and then entirely waste 22 million cubic metres of polluted waters each year turning the whole mining area dangerously dry. We don't want to produce coal that will cost us $90 per ton. We don't want to ignore the fact that even in Barapukuria's "safe" underground mine area, land is subsiding and potable water is becoming out of the community's reach.
In following the best underground mining practices, we must remember even in Germany -- which is known for one of the best mining related environmental practices -- underground coal mining is so expensive that it needs subsidy. This is why Germany's shares of underground mining for hard coal is shrinking. By 2018, Germany will close down all its underground hard coal mines -- while maintaining 100 million tons of lignite coal mining from open pit mines.

Let Dighipara be our first open-pit mine
Put aside Asia Energy's proposal, and start to consider that Bangladesh can develop open-pit mine, if it is possible technically and if that can be done through compensating for human resettlement and by addressing environmental issues. Let's start from the Dighipara coal mine -- against which Petrobangla has submitted a proposal. I assure you, if Petrobangla drills as many test wells as Asia Energy and has its feasibility study professionally done -- investment will not be a problem. Energy is precious around the world.
What is our extra benefit from open-pit mines? For example, Germany's open-pit lignite coal mine is so cost effective that the latest (2005) 1,000 megawatt power plant generates power at less than 1 Euro cent (1.25 US cent) per kilowatt hour! This is even cheaper than the Meghnaghat power.
Because of very low coal production rate, underground mines will not save us from our upcoming power crisis. But coal will not only give us thousands of megawatts of power, it will give us clean synthetic petroleum -- which presently costs less than $30 per ton --and meet our 3.5 million ton petroleum per annum petroleum demand. Coal is also the source of many types of chemicals and paints. Surely, once we open our horizons, we will be able to explore those fields. Large-scale production does not necessarily imply encouraging export of coal.

National involvement
Personally, I oppose Asia Energy's proposal, mainly from financial aspect because I have always believed Bangladesh is not getting fair financial return in the deal. After seeing the German experience, I realized what was missing from the Phulbari proposal -- it excluded Bangladesh's ownership. Indeed, successful mining companies like RWE or Tata are home-grown. Why can't we have a policy regime to encourage a home-grown company in which private companies may participate, but not hold the ownership of the resources?
Let us learn from the experience of Coal India, the world's largest coal producer -- which used to be a local private company that was nationalised in 1973 and then in the early nineties saw private involvement again.
I strongly believe that giving Phulbari away to Asia Energy just like that would be disastrous. If Phulbari zone is awarded to any coal mining company for execution, Bangladesh must be the large stakeholder in this deal. As a nation, we have the sovereign right to cancel or modify any deal to suit our national interest. My reports have in fact emphasised this point strongly.

What are underground and open-pit mines?
According to the World Coal Institute, there are two types of underground mines and just one type of open pit mines.
In underground mining, Room and Pillar style mining allows a maximum extraction of 40% of coal in the seam. The other approach is Longwall Mining, which uses mechanical shearers to fully extract coal from a section of the seam. A longwall face requires careful planning to ensure favourable geology exists throughout the section before development work begins. Over 75% of the coal in the deposit can be extracted from panels of coal that can extend 3km through the coal seam.
Geologists say the highest possible coal production from an underground mine, anywhere around the world, is 5 million tons a year. There are very few Longwall underground mines around the world, because this kind of mine is possible in a very limited geological situation.
The World Coal Institute says that open cut or surface mining is only economic when the coal seam is near the surface. This method recovers a higher proportion of the coal deposit than underground mining as all coal seams are exploited -- 90% or more of the coal can be recovered.
Geologists say that presently an open-pit mine allow annual coal production of 40 million tons. And if there is enough demand, such a mine could produce more.
Coal production figures of Indian Coal, that operates both underground and open-pit mines, show that its open-pit mines produce more than six times the coal produced in underground mines. In 2005-06, Coal India produced 45.82 million tons from underground mines and 297.57 million tons from open-pit mines.
This shows that open-pit mining produces maximum coal. Bangladesh is an energy starved, very low energy consuming country in the country. The supply of our staple source of energy gas is set to decline from 2011. But our power demand forecast is high.
I am not a "supporter" of open-pit mining. My argument is that we keep our minds open, and take the best approach that will benefit us most economically, socially and environmentally. If we must meet our power and energy demands, we cannot depend on small scale mines. We need to produce coal that will help us meet our demands. This is why I am opposed to the thought that open-pit mining should be banned out of hand. Open-pit mines can produce high volume of coal at a given time, which the underground mines can not. Let me reiterate, if the current technologies do not allow open-pit mines in our country safely, I withdraw my case.

Sharier Khan is City Editor, The Daily Star.