Staff Reporter :
The state-run Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) has discovered the largest ever limestone quarry in Tajpur area of Badalgachhi in Naogaon district, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid disclosed this on Thursday.
“The limestone quarry appears to be the largest discovery so far in the country as the pit is spread over a 50 square kilometre area. After drilling 2,270 feet down, the GSB found this huge reserve of the limestone,” he told journalists at his Secretariat office. “Drilling is being continued there. Now we will go for feasibility study whether the limestone can be extracted for commercial production,” said Nasrul Hamid
He added once commercial production starts, the limestone will cater local demand for clinker – a material used in cement production among other purposes.
“A team of 30 surveyors have recently prepared a report on the quarry after a three-month thorough survey in the area. Our dependency on imported ingredients for the cement industry will reduce as the country will be able to extract ingredients from the newly found quarry,” he said.
He also said that it would take another two years to start commercial production.
Limestone is a key ingredient for making cement and if the deposit is as big as the indicators are saying, it could meet the demand for limestone in Bangladesh.
Currently, Bangladesh depends largely on imported limestone. With the extraction of limestone, the country will not have to import the ingredients any longer and save Tk 1,000 crore annually, Nasrul Hamid said.
According to officials, the GSB will go another 1,500 feet into the ground. They said that the reserves at the new field might be five to ten times higher of the Joypurhat limestone field, which holds about 100 million tonnes of limestone.
Earlier on June 4 in 2012, the GSB discovered a limestone deposit in Panchbibi upazila of Joypurhat.
In 1961, the Geological Survey of then Pakistan found limestone deposits in Bagalibazar-Takerghat-Bhangerghat areas of Sunamganj. The total deposit of around 30 million tonnes was found in four locations at depths between six metres and 100 metres.
At Takerghat, at least 612,371 tonnes of limestone were mined between 1972 and 1993, according to the GSB.
In the 60’s, limestone deposits were found in Bogra (nearly 2,000 metres below the surface), in Patnitala of Naogaon (300 metres below the surface), Paharpur of Joypurhat (500 metres below the surface) and in Jamalganj of Joypurhat.
In 1966, Fried Krupp Roshtoff of Germany undertook a feasibility study of limestone mining in Jamalganj and found the mine was economically feasible. In 1969, the then government undertook a mining project that was never launched.
In 1978, the Geological Survey of Bangladesh came up with a fresh analysis saying that the Jamalganj deposit had 100 million tonnes of mineable limestone covering a 6.7 square km area. However, the project was abandoned due to the high cost involved in controlling the underground temperature.
