This is the Report about Barapukuria Coal Mine, Maddhapara Granite Mine Company Limited and Institute of Mining, Mineralogy and Metallurgy, BCSIR, Joypurhat. So if you need to you will read it. I think it will be support for your education purpose. Thank you.

1. 1
Introduction
In 30th
Nov 2018, we started our journey for Dinajpur to Visit Barapukuria Coal
Mine, Dinajpur, Which is the first Coal Mine in our country. The Barapukuria
Coal Mine is the first coal mine in Bangladesh, discovered in 1985 by Geological
Survey of Bangladesh (GSB).After that we visit Maddhapara Granite Company
Limited. This is the first Granite Mine in Bangladesh. Maddhapara subsurface
hard rock in 1974-75 the geological survey of Bangladesh (GSB) drilled six wells
in and around Maddhapara and confirmed the existence of Precambrian hard rock
at very shallow depths. Also visit the Institute of Mining, Mineralogy and
Metallurgy, BCSIR, Joypurhat.
Place- Barapukuria Coal Mine
The Barapukuria Coal Mine is the first coal mine in Bangladesh, discovered in
1985 by Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB), started commercial production
now with a production capacity of 1 million metric ton annually.
Location
It is located in the Chowhati village of Hamidpur union council under Parbatipur
Thana of Dinajpur District. The nearest Railway Station Phulbari is 6km south of
Barapukuria.
Stratigraphy
Barapukuria Mine area is a stand land extends over a zone of more than 7800 sq.
km. Elevation of the Barapukuria coal mine zone differs from 28m to 30m above
sea level. The Madhupur clay is also exposed at the surface or covered under a
thin soil layer less than one meter thick, formed by the weathering of the red clay.
Due to the deletion of the clayey materials, the soil has become sandier than the
parent rock. Barapukuria coal mining area and its surroundings are formed by the
deposition of three different deposits, e.g. Piedmont Alluvium, Tista Alluvium
and Barind Tract. The Barind Tract is crossed by a number of rivers occupying
faults troughs. The sedimentary succession of the basin may be divided from
bottom upward into three units:
I. The Gondwana Group

2. 2
The sediment is permain in age (250-285 million years) and rests
unconformably on Precambrian (more than 600 million years)
crystalline and metamorphic basement. The maximum thickness of
Gondwana Group is 475 meter’s;
II. Dupitila formation
The Dupitila Formation is divided into major sandy unit and Upper
Dupitila Member. The Formation is Pliocene age and Permain
Gondwana rock unit. The Upper Dupitila is composed of
unconsolidated to poorly consolidated sand
III. Modhupur Clay
The Modhupur Clay unit in Barapukuria coal field area is
characterized by 3 to 15 meter thick silty clay.
Geology
The study area Barapukuria coal attitude Gondwana basin is located in the
Rangpur saddle of the north-western part of Bangladesh. The Rangpur Saddle is
a probable connection between Indian Platform. The general structure of the
Barapukuria Coal Mine area is a single syncline spreading along N-S direction
and cut by faults The saddle zone has severely suffered from faulting of different
age, as it is evident from Geophysical survey.

3. 3
Method
Longwall Top Coal Caving (LTCC) is an underground mining method developed
for thick seam extraction. The success of LTCC operation-from all three
perspectives of safety, resource recovery and productivity-depends to a large
extent on having an appropriate geotechnical condition and then successful
geotechnical management within this environment. The geotechnical factors
considered to be of most importance for safe and effective implementation of
LTCC are considered to be following-
The LTCC method can be used to successfully extract up to 12 meters in thick
seams whereas standard long wall equipment is only capable of mining in seams
of up to 4.5 meter. It was first introduced in France.
Depth of Barapukuria coal Mine here is 118m to 509 m having six coal seams
with average thickness 36 m (seam VI). Reserve of coal is 390 million tons where
mineable reserve is 64 million tons (1st phase).Now the production is running in
the “vi” seam. The reserve of the seam “vi” is 271 million tons. Production is
running in middle point of the seam. It is of bituminous type and composition of
coal containing Ash 12.4%, Volatile matter 29.2%, fixed carbon 48.4%, Sulphur
0.53%, Moisture 10%, of which80% from the total production of mine is used in
250 MW coal fired power station and remaining 20% is used in brick fields, small
cottage industries and other domestic purposes.
For using the “LTCC” method the production is increased double from previous.
The slice size is about 6m. In previous the mining method for Barapukuria was
“Longwall Mining Method”. In the meantime the production was half of the
LTCC. In the mine the water flow is about 2300 cubic meter/hr.
There are two shaft is used in the mine for mine entrance and existence.
I Main Shaft
The main shaft is used for coal extraction from mine. After load the
mine the shaft is back to the surface. Then the coal is unload in the

4. 4
bunker and from there by the conveyer belt the coal is moved in the
PDB on the storage.
II Auxiliary Shaft
It is used for enter and exist people or machinery and west material.
Fig: Main Shaft
Fig: Auxiliary Shaft

5. 5
Advantages of LTCC
 High resource recovery.
 Operating cost reduction.
 High productivity.
 Mine financial performance.
 Safety
Disadvantages of LTCC
 The high coal loss occurring during the production of top coal, resulting in
a significant decrease of coal recovery.
Subsidence
One of the major effect of Barapukuria
Underground Mine has been the subsidence of the
land. This has the major impact because of the fact
that it is agricultural land with high population
density. The subsidence occurs because of the run
without backfilling. The first subsidence was
occur in 2006.By the information of 2010 an area
of 628 acres of land was affected by subsidence
that include 8 villages.
Place- Maddhapara Granite Mine Company Limited
Maddhapara Granite Mine (MGM) is the only one underground hard rock
mine in Bangladesh under the Petrobangla and the Ministry of Power, Energy
and Mineral Resources of Bangladesh. Geological Survey of Bangladesh
(GSB) ran an exploration survey in Maddhapara. In the Maddhapara area,
basement rock is encountered at a depth of 130 m [1]. An estimated reserve of
174 million tons of hard rock in MGM consisting of granodiorite, diorite,
quartzdiorite and gneiss of the Pre-Cambrian age has been discovered. The
Company was incorporated on 4th
August, 1998 with a paid up Capital of Taka
350.00 Crore under Company Act. Of 1994. The production capacity of the
mine is 1.65 million metric ton/year.

6. 6
Location
MGM is situated in Maddhapara, Dinajpur district,
northwest Bangladesh, with an area of about 1.44 km².
Maddhapara hard rock Mine is 330km away from
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and 14km away from
Phulbari Dinajpur.
Geology Fig:Location of Maddhapara
Based on geological framework,
Bangladesh is divided into two main
divisions (Bakhtin 1966, Guha 1978,
Raimann 1933 and1996), namely
1) The Precambrian Indian platform
and
2) The basin or geosyncline.
Aligned from north-east to south-
west, a narrow zone between the
above a mentioned divisions is called
“the Hinge zone’’. Further the
Precambrian Indian platform is
subdivided into
1) Rngprur Saddle, and
2) Bogra shelf
Fig: Geologic map of Bangladesh. (Map
from Alam et al. 1990, permitted from
Geological Survey Bangladesh.)

7. 7
Maddhapara hardrock mine area is located in Rangpur Saddle. The main
characteristics of the Saddle are that the sedimentary cover is very thin and
basement lies at shallow depth in this region. Age: 173 Crore Years. Intrusive
Igneous Rock.
Petrology:
a) Rock Type: Predominantly Diorite, Quartz Diorite and Granite.
b) Grain size: medium to coarse grain.
c) Mineralogical Composition:
I. Essential Mineral: Plagioclase (42-61%),
Hornblende (19-53%)
Biotite (1-8%)
Quartz (1-7%)
K-feldspar (1-10%)
Titanite (<1%)
II. Accessory Mineral: Epidote, Pyrite, Chalcopyrite, Zircon,
Apatite.
Rocks found
 Kaolinized Granodiorite
 Weathered Granodiorite
 Granodiorite
 Micro–granodiorite
Area, Reserve & Method of the Mine
 Present Mining Area: 1.2 sq. Km.
 Present Rock Reserve: 174 Million MT.
 Mine Design Life: 50 Years (extended upto70 years).
 No. of Stopes in present Mine Life: 125.
 Initial Developed Stopes: 5.
 Mining Method: Room & Pillar Sublevel Stopping.

8. 8
Hardness:
6.5 (Mohs Hardness Scale)
Mine Activity
1. Mine project:
Bangladesh Oil, Gas & Mineral Corporation (petrobangla) and Korea
south-south corporation (NAMNAM) entered into a contraet on 27th
March 1994 for the development of a hardrock mine in Maddhapara,
Dinajpur.
2.Mining method:
The underground mining method is applied in Maddhapara granite mine.
The Room and Pillar Sublevel Stopping method of underground mining is
apply here. The underground mining operation is operate by two verticals
shafts, each of them 5m in diameter and 240m apart from one another The
shafts have depth of 330.5m and 389.9m, respectively. Three mining
development tunnels such Ventilation, production, transportation are

9. 9
excavated at depth level of 194m, 213m, 238m with connection to vertical
shafts. The main mining operation cover an area of 1.2km by 1.2km.
Mine safety.
Mine safety are as follow’s
Personal protective equipment:
1.head protection
2. Eye and face protection
3. Hearing protection
4.Hand foot, and leg protection
5.Protection clothing
6. Respiratory equipment
Sanitary facilities:
1.Suitable sanitation and hygienic facilities must be provide at mine and
properly maintained.
2.Appropriate toilet facilities must be provides within a reasonable distance
from each workplace at the mine.
Mine dry’s:
1. Potable water.
2. Mine climate.
The climate of the mine is determined by the temperature and humidity of the
mine air.
Mining area:
Mining district covered a 1.2 square km area. From its underground the hard is
acquired. All essential building for the Mine is constructed here. Mining district
can be divided in two area.
i) surface building
ii) underground mine area
 Surface building:
Significant surface building are as follow :
 Welfare building:
This building controlled and supplied the essential mechanical and safety

10. 10
support ( wearing cloth, helmet, gum boot, mask ) for all Officer’s , Mine
Engineer’s , and Mine worker’s during get down and get out from the
mine.
 Cage winder building:
Winder machine is situated here. This building controlled the entrance of
cage shaft by winder machine.

11. 11
 Skip winder building:
It is a permanent architect.Skip winder machine is situated here. This
building controlled the lifting the hard rock from mine by skip shaft.
 Compressed house:
It is an essential building. To operate many numeric instrument inside or
outside of mine and supply compressed air into the mine.
 Maintenance workshop:
In this building instruments are maintained which are used in mine.
 Crushing and sorting plant:
Different size of rocks are formed from this plant. From here lifted rock is
transported from skip shaft into railway yard by conveyers.
 Railway tract:
Lifted hard rock is transported in different area in the country by this
railway. There is 12.5km rail line from Parbatipur to mine area. It reduces
the transportation cost.
 Electrical sub station:
Under the maintenance of Petrobangla there is a electrical substation of
2×10 MV.Without these there is a generator building, a control room.
Environmental Impacts:
Subsidence in the mine area
Lowering of ground water and pollution of ground water

12. 12
Air pollution
Noise pollution and vibration effect
Ecological disturbance
Soil pollution
Place- Institute of Mining, Mineralogy and Metallurgy,
BCSIR, Joypurhat
The Institute of Mining, Mineralogy and Metallurgy (IMMM), BCSIR, Joypurhat
and formally installed by the Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 22
January 2012 is One of the exciting entities of Bangladesh Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research (BCSIR) The IMMM has three research divisions namely
mining, mineralogy and metallurgy. The current importance objective is to
encourage joint research activities primarily in the areas of characterization of
mineral sands resources, deposits, technology evaluation for sand mining and
mineral sand processing.
Here we see some instruments that’s are important for mining, they are
UTM: Universal Testing Machine. Use for measure the strain of a material.
Fig: UTM

13. 13
Jaw Crusher: Used for the rapid granite crushing and pre-crushing of medium-
hard, hard, brittle and tough materials.
Fig: Jaw Crusher
XRF: Use an X-ray source and detector to measure the response to X-rays
interacting with a substance provide a measurement to help identify a substance.
Fig: XRF

14. 14
Tempering Furnace: 3 Types 1.High Temperature furnace 2.Temperaing
Furnace 3. Tube Furnace
Fig: Tempering Furnace
Fig High Temperature Furnace

15. 15
Fig: Tube Furnace
Elemental Analyser: Use for analyse the C,H,N,S,O from a material
Fig: Elemental Analyser

16. 16
Vacuum Dryer and Daring Oven:
Fig: Vacuum Dryer and Daring Oven
XRD: X -ray diffraction is a method of X –ray
crystallography, in which a beam of X –rays
strikes a sample (crystalline solid), land on a
piece of film or other detector to produce
scattered beams. These beams make a
diffraction pattern of spots; the strengths and
angles of these beams are recorded as the
sample is gradually rotated.
Fig: XRD
Porositymeter: To determine the pore space of a rock this machine is used for.
Fig: Porositymeter

17. 17
Permeability Test: To determine the how liquid flow of a rock permeability test
is used for
Fig: Permeability Test
Bomb Calorimeter: It is use for the calorific value of a material.
Fig: Bomb Calorimeter
Grain Particle separator:
Fig: Grain Particle separator

18. 18
Grinding and Policing Machine:
Fig: Grinding and Policing Machine
Conclusion
Mining is one of the major economic activities in many developing countries. The
success of LTCC mining in several areas depends on the thickness of top coal.
Generally LTCC mining is suitable in seams ranging from 4.5 m to approximately
12 min thickness. Greater than this the coal may cave but at an angle of break
which falls behind the rear conveyer or that the flow of coal is choked off due to
the flow characteristics of the fragmented coal resulting in poor draw ability.
MGM serves the country by providing with hard rocks which is used in various
purposes. But there are some problems which cause bad impacts to the
environment like subsidence in the mine area, ground water pollution and
lowering of ground water table due to excessive pumping of sub-surface water,
noise pollution, vibration effect and air pollution during drilling and blasting, soil
pollution in the mine area, etc. Extraction of hard rock in MGM helps us to save
considerable amount of foreign currencies. So to improve socio-economic
infrastructure of our country this mine can play a vital role in improving gross
national economy of Bangladesh.
Reference
My own visit experience, someone collected from internet and Research papers.