Report on Khalashphir Coal Field,Barapukuria coal mine & Maddhapara Granite Mine Company Limited.

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Context
Title Page
Abstract 4
Acknowledgement 5
Introduction 6
Objectives 6
Study Area 7
CHAPTER-01
Khalashphir Coal Field
1.1. Place: 8
1.2. History: 9
1.3. Geological succession of Khalashpir coal field 9
1.4. Core Sample 10
1.5. Coal Seam Attributes 10
1.6. Recovery Rate 11
CHAPTER-02
Barapukuria coal mine
2.1. Place 12
2.2. History 13
2.3. Topography, Climate, and Rainfall, Physiography, Drainage 13
2.4. The properties of coal from Barapukuria coal mine 14
2.5. Mine details 15
2.6. Geological succession of Barapukuria coal Mine 16
2.7. Method 17
2.8. Advantages of LTCC 18
2.9. Disadvantages of LTCC 18
2.10. Main Shaft 18
2.11. Auxiliary Shaft 19
2.12. Conveyor Belt 20
2.13. Coal yard 20
2.14. Subsidence 21
2.15. Crops and Vegetation 21

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CHAPTER-03
Maddhapara Granite Mine Company Limited
3.1. Place 22
3.2. History 23
3.3. Stratigraphic succession of the Maddhapara area 24
3.4. Geology 24
3.5. Petrology 26
3.6. Area, Reserve & Method of the Mine 26
3.7. Mining Method and Operations 26
3.8. Mine Activity 27
3.9. Mine safety 28
3.10. Sanitary facilities 28
3.11. Mining area 28
3.12. Surface building 28
3.13. Workshop 30
3.14. Production cycle 31
3.15. Uses of Products 31
3.16. Environmental Impacts 31
4. Result 31
5. Summary and Conclusion 32
6. Reference 32
List of Tables
Table Title Page
1 Geological succession of Khalashpir coal field 9
2 Average Thickness Variation of Coal Seam 10
3 Recovery rate after applying underground mining method 11
4 The properties of coal from Barapukuria coal mine 14
5 Stratigraphic succession of the Barapukuria coal basin 16
6 Stratigraphic succession of the Maddhapara area 24

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List of Figures
Figure Title Page
1 Study Area 7
2 Khalashphir coal field 8
3 Core sample of khalashphir coal field 10
4 3-Dimensional Stratigraphic & coal seam model (SW side) of khalashpir coal
field
11
5 Barapukria coal mine 12
6 Coal sample of Barapukria Coal mine 14
7 Longwall mining panels in Barapukuria Coal Mine, Bangladesh 15
8 LTCC mininh method at Barapukria Coal Mine. 17
9 Main Shaft at Barapukria Coal Mine. 19
10 Auxiliary Shaft at Barapukria Coal Mine 19
11 Conveyor Belt at Barapukria coal mine 20
12 Coal Yard at Barapukria Coal mine 20
13 Subsidence effect area at Barapukria Coal mine 20
14 Maddhapara Granite mine. 22
15 Cross sectional view of northern part of Bangladesh 25
16 Hydrogeological formation of MGMCL 25
17 Underground Mining Model of MGMCL 27
18 Crusher at Maddhapara granite mine 29
19 Railway at Maddhapara granite mine 30
20 Workshop at Maddhapara granite mine 30
21 Production cycle of Maddhapara granite mine 31

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Abstract
Bangladesh is a country enriched with many natural resources such as oil, gas, coal, heavy mineral and many
other natural resources. Coal is an important energy resource produced by one of the hydrocarbon group. In
the early of 20th century coal was used more than 65% of the total energy resource of the world. During 1960-
1970's the uses of coal decreases, when cheaper and efficient oil and natural gas were available and utilized.
But since 1980's the proportion has increased again and it takes about 30% at the present world. Although
Bangladesh has a substantial quantity of fossil fuel, in this regard it has to pay attention through coal mining.
Barapukuria coal mine is the first developed mine in Bangladesh and now passes its trial production period,
with a production capacity of 1 million metric ton annually. The insignificant production of Barapukuria coal
mine is insufficient to justifying the rising demand, conversely, lacking of long term initiatives, the renovation
of highly potential coal field to coal mine has not happened yet.Also found out a positive correlation of mining
parameters of Khalashpir coal field that can lead to a feasible mining activity. In the perspective of socio-
economic changes of Bangladesh, rapid development and communications have been taking place and as a
result use of stone/rocks/stone dusts has been increased significantly. Maddhapara Mine is one of the
underground hardrock mine in the world from where igneous rocks exploited. According to the test results of
the Bureau of Research and Testing Consultation (BRTC) of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology,the physical and engineering properties of the rocks are most suitable for quality construction
works which is environment friendly too. Maddhapara hardrock mine are mineable reserve of 174 Million
Metric Tons and total extractable quantity of 73 Million Metric Tons (42% of the total reserve). Maddhapara
rock are using in the heavy duty construction of road and highways, bridges, fly-over. elevated express ways,
embankment,rivertraining,high rise building,culverts etc.
Keywords: coal, hardrock, Barapukuria coal mine, Khalashpir coal field, Maddhapara hardrock mine,
development.

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Acknowledgement
First off, I want to thank Allah for giving me the health and welfare I needed to do this fieldwork. In order to
give us the chance to learn more about the practical aspects of our fieldwork,
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. H. M. Zakir Hossain, the distinguished chairman of the
Petroleum & Mining Engineering Department at Jessore University of Science and Technology, for granting
permission for fieldwork in 2023 of the second year, second semester.
I am grateful to Dr. Md Moklesur Rahman & Dr. Md Minhaj Uddin Monir, Professor, in the Department
of Petroleum & Mining Engineering at Jessore University of Science and Technology. I am extremely thankful
and indebted to him for sharing expertise, and sincere and valuable guidance and encouragement extended to
me. I take this opportunity to express gratitude to all of the Department faculty members for their help and
support. I also thank my parents for the unceasing encouragement, support and attention.
I am also grateful to my partner who supported me thought this venture. I am also appreciative that MGMCL
allowed me to tour an underground mining field.
I appreciate BCMCL for giving us the opportunity to see the Coal Field region and for providing crucial
information via presentations.
I also place on report, my sense of gratitude to one and all, who directly or indirectly, have lemt their hand in
this venture. Hope to continue cooperation with all of you in the future.
Sincerely,
Md Aminul Islam
Roll No:190836
Session:2020-2021
Department of Petroleum & Mining Engineering
Jashore University of Science & Technology

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Introduction
Petrobangla's coal mining operation was conducted by Barapukuria Coal Mining Co. Ltd. at Barapuluria in
the Dinajpur District. The coal mine had a production capacity of 1 million ton per year of coal. Coal extraction
was by long-wall mining. The coal was delivered to a thermal powerplant. Development work of the next
long-wall coal face was underway, and production was expected to begin in 2007 (Bangladesh Oil, Gas and
Mineral Corp., 2007).Global Coal Management ple continued to wait for approval from the Government for
its Phulbari coal project's plan of development. The project's environmental impact and feasibility studies had
been completed, and mining operations could be done by open pit method. After coal preparation, the final
product would be coking coal and thermal coal for both export and domestic use. The bituminous coal resource
of 572 million metric tons was large enough for the mine to last more than 30 years at a mining rate of 15
MU/yr (Global Coal Managementple, 2007). Khalashpir coal field is the 3rd largest coal field in Bangladesh,
where coal occurs at depths of 257m to 483m below the surface. Considering the Geological, Geo-
environment and other related geo- engineering information, underground mining have been selected there to
extract the deposit. Maddhapara Granite Mining Co. Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Petrobangla, operated a
hard-rock mine at Maddhapara in the Dinajpur District. The mine was fully operational in 2007 with a
production capacity of 1.65 Mt/yr of granite. During the mine development period, some 347,000 metric tons
(1) of granite was produced, of which 133,000 t was used as construction material (Bangladesh Oil, Gas and
Mineral Corp., 2007). 1.2 - Objectives of field work:- To know about geological & Geomorphological features
of Dinajpur. To know about the different mining method. To gather knowledge of the field work. To collect
practical knowledge. To enjoy with department.
Objectives:
• To have a visual demonstration of how miner’s works.
• To learn about different mining equipment.
• To learn various safety procedure.

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Study Area:
Khalashphir Coal Field: Khalashpir is a populated area in Pirganj Upazila, Rangpur District,
Bangladesh. The area is notable for Khalashirpir Hat, a bazaar. It also has one of the five known coal reserves
of Bangladesh. Khalashpir coal field that is the second highest among five in terms of reserve. Khalashpir
Coal Field is located in Madankhali union under Pirgonj Upazila of Rangpur district within 25º23'14" N
to 25º30' 00" N and 89º09'12" E to 89º15'00" E.
Barapukuria Coal Mine: Barapukuria Coal Mine is run by the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company
Limited.Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited is a subsidiary of the state owned Petrobangla. The mine
is located at Parbatipur upazila in Dinajpur. This is the lone active coal mine in Bangladesh. The location of
Barapukuria coal mine is in between the latitude 25˚33'15" to 25˚34'15" N and longitude 88˚57' to 88˚59' E.
Maddhapara Granite Mine: Maddhapara hard rock Mine is located in Maddhapara , Dinajpur ,
Bangladesh. Its geographical coordinates are 25˚ 33΄ 15΄΄ N to 25˚34΄ 15΄΄ N latitude and 89˚ 3΄ 30΄΄E to 89˚
4΄ 53΄ E longitude (see map 1.) Maddhapara hard rock Mine is 330km away from Dhaka, the capital of
Bangladesh and 14km away from phulbari Dinajpur.
Fig-1: Study Area

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CHAPTER -01
Khalashphir Coal Field
1.1. Place:
On 8th October,2023. we reached the Khalashphir Coal Field Area.There we learnt many things. First, we
learnt about the history of there. Then we saw Core sample, Coal basin area etc. khalashpir Coal Field is
located in Madankhali union under Pirgonj Upazila of Rangpur district within 25º23'14" N to 25º30' 00" N
and 89º09'12" E to 89º15'00" E geographic co-ordination system respectively.
Fig-2: Khalashphir coal field.

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1.2. History:
Khalaspir coal basin lies in a region of vast plain land with an approximate topographic elevation of 25m. This
area is situated in the Rangpur saddle, a geological subdivision of Bengal Basin. Geophysical survey has
shown that the saddle area has severely suffered from faulting of different age. Several faulting along the
Jamuna and Ganges rivers downthrown the region make it's a graben type structure corresponding to the horst
structure of Shillong Massif and Mikir Hills (Khan, 1991). Networking of this fault, ultimately made up as
many as five faults bounded Gondwana basin in the area (Uddin and Islam, 1992; Islam, 1993). The faults
observed within these tectonic elements are actually existed during the Gondwana period formed intrabasinal
horsts and graben.
1.3. Geological succession of Khalashpir coal field:
Geological succession of Khalashpir coal field is from top to bottom Alluvium ,Madhupur clay, Dupi tila
formation, Surma group ,Gondwana group which refers the max thickness considering formation form top to
bottom is 2 m, 165 m, 178.50 m, 814.93 m.
Table-1: Geological succession of Khalashpir coal field.

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1.4. Core Sample :
The coal field was delineated and defined by the Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) in 1989 on the basis
of 4 borehole GDH-45, GDH-46, GDH-47, and GDH-48. Afterwards, a Chinese Company consortium with
Hosaf International Ltd. and Senwine Mining Group Co. Ltd. further carried out a feasibility study and drilled
14 more boreholes, which are GTB-1, GTB-2, GTB-3, GTB-4, GTB-6, GTB-8, GTB-9, GTB-10, GTB-12,
GTB-16, GTB- 18, GTB-19, GTB-20 and GTB- 21 (2004-2006) to explore geological extent and other
commercial aspects of the basin at the Khalashpir Coalfield.
.
Fig-3: Core sample of khalashphir coal field.
1.5. Coal Seam Attributes:
Among the eight, I, II and IV are the thickest (table II), whose thicknesses vary erratically; in where the
average discrete range is in between 2.35 m to 36.52 m, mostly of these reached towards the Eastern side of
the basin. Only these three coal seams pervade throughout the area and the rest seams are meagerly permeated.
On the other hand, the average thickness of residuum seams (III, V, VI, VII, and VIII) is not over 5.60 m. The
depth range of these coal layers (seam I to VIII) varies from 215.14 m to 516.50 m.
Table-2: Average Thickness Variation of Coal Seam.

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Fig-4: 3-Dimensional Stratigraphic & coal seam model (SW side) of khalashpir coal field(aliur, 2018).
1.6. Recovery Rate:
Among eight coal seams, only three are potential for mining (seam I, II, IV) containing approximately 364
million tons. In accordance with some mining parameters, authors proposed Longwall multi-slice mining
method with backfilling for Khalashpir coal field. Nearly about 64 million tons of coal recovery is possible
by the proposed mining method. The pejorative influence of aquifer on mining activity can be mollified
through ceaseless pumping out operation. The renovation of this coal field to coal mine will be the forward
step of Bangladesh for assuaging its energy quandary.
Table-3: Recovery rate after applying underground mining method.

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CHAPTER- 02
Barapukuria coal mine
2.1. Place:
On 9th October,2023. we reached Barapukuria coal mine. There we learnt many things. First, we learnt
about the history of there. Then we saw Surface Area, then we visit underground area of mine. The
Barapukuria Coal Mine (BCM) is situated in the Parbotipur Upazila, Dinajpur District, which lies between
the latitudes 23°31/45// and 23°33/05//N, and the longitudes 88°57/48// and 88°58/53//E. Barapukuria Coal
Mine is 330km away from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and 14km away from phulbari Dinajpur. and
cut by faults (CMC, 1994). The saddle area has severely suffered from faulting of different age, as it is
evident from Geophysical survey. Networking of this fault ultimately creates five fault bounded Gondwana-
graben basins in the area (Uddin and Islam, 1992; Islam. 1993). Moreover the aeromagnetic map shows that
the frequency of faulting is low over the basement of the stable platform. This is the characteristics feature
of the Gondwana basins of Peninsular India.
Fig-5: Barapukria coal mine.

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2.2. History:
In 1985 Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) discovered high quality bituminous coal spread over an area
of 6.68 Square Kilometers at a depth ranging from 118 to 509 meters in Barapukuria under Parbatipur upazilla
in the district of Dinajpur. During 1987-1991 a UK based company M/S Wardell Armstrong carried out the
Techno-Economic Feasibility study on this coal reserve under ODA financial support. Based upon the Wardell
Armstrong report, Petrobangla undertook Barapukuria Coal Mine Development project and the PP was
approved by ECNEC. In Pre-partition era of British India, coal from Garo hills of Meghalaya was transported
and traded through East Bengal. Mining offices opened in Dhaka and trade was aided by British Rail network
in India. In 1961 UN-Pak Mineral Survey Project started surveys in then East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) by
Geological Survey of Pakistan. In 1962 the survey found 1.05 million ton of coal in Jamalganj, Sunamganj
District. The next big discovery came in 1985 when Geological Survey of Bangladesh discovered coal in
Dinajpur. In 1989 a coalfield was discovered in khalashpir, Rangpur District and another in 1995 in Dighipara
by the Geological Survey of Bangladesh. Multinational BHP discovered Phulbari coalfield in 1997. Global
Coal Management is waiting approval for the Phulbari coalfield. Bangladesh has an estimated 2 billion tonnes
of coal in underground reserves in the Northwest region of the country.
2.3. Topography, Climate, and Rainfall, Physiography, Drainage: -
2.3.1. Topography: - Bangladesh is dominantly a plain and so is Barapukuria Mine area which is table land.
this table land extends across Northern Bangladesh FROM Comilla in the east through Rajshahi division to
West Bengal on India in the west. Historically known as the Barind Tract, contains the BARAPUKURIA
COAL MINE site and extends over an area of more then 7800 sq km. In the area elevation generally varies
from 10m to a little over 40m above sea level and depicts more or less a flat topography. Elevation of the
Barapukuria coal mine area varies from 28m to 30m above see level.
2.3.2. Climate: - As Bangladesh belongs to the tropical zone, the climate in the mine area is characterized by
hot season in summer, moderate in monsoon and cool in winter. Average temperature in June is the highest,
with a maximum of 38.8'e and average temperature in January the lowest, with a minimum of 7'c. Rainfall:
Bangladesh has a heavy rainfall and the mine area has rainfall equivalent to 85 percent of annual rainfall in
the monsoon season between June and October and little rainfall in the dry season from November to May the
following year. Physiography: Barapukuria coal mining area and its environs are formed by the deposition of
three different materials, e.g. Piedmont Alluvium, Tista Alluvium and Barind Tract. The Piedmont plains occur
throughout most of Dinajpur District and of Rangpur District. The old Himalayan Piedmont plain is a part of
a gigantic allucial fan formed by the Tista River, before it abandoned the landscape. The generally consist of
gently undualing ridges with intervening broad sometimes narrowly leveled depression. The Tista Alluvium
is underlain by Recent to Sub-Recent and older Floodplain. Barindra Tract presents somewhat alluvium termed
the Mdupur Clay.

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2.3.3. Drainage: - The entire Tableland is surrounded by two major river system, Jamuna and Ganges. An
impervious red clay layer covers most of the tableland area and limits direct seepage of rainwater. This causes
the water to drain along shallow streams that flow from north to south. Fragmented agricultural land hold
some rain water for rice irrigation. A major part of this water is ultimately evaporated. The regional rivers
mainly drain the local runoff. Stream flow is the major component of regional surface water. Kharkharia and
Tulshiganga rivers floeing from north join the Jamuna river. Two other rivers, Nagor and Bhadal passing
through the southeastern part meet the Karatoa-Atrai-Gur-GUMAIN-Hurasagar river flowing through the
southern boundary. Jamuneswari-karatoa is the principal river in the area. This river is the downstream portion
of Deonai-Charalkata river. It has two other smaller tributaries, but these tributaries carry small amount of
water during monsoon only. Jamuneswari enters the area at Badarganj in Badarganj Upzila and it leaves
through Mithapukur Thana. Spills from the Brahmaputra river into are controlled by the Brahmaputra right
Embankment. The Barind Tract is crossed by a number of rivers occupying faults troughs. Most of the rivers
within the study area are small in size and flow. Phase 2 falls within a boundary formed by the Chimai and
Kala river is distributary of the Chirnai and separates at Kisamat Union. But it again. coalesces with the river
as a tributary at Debipur Union. The river runs for about 10kms. independently, no significant drainage system
is available within Phase 3. there are many ponds within the area. Mostly are local few naturals. surface area
of standing water bodies, such as, haors, baors and beels excluding ponds and tanks was surveyed. In the study
area there are 5 standing water bodies, beels and blocked river channels. Total surface area of standing water
bodies are 254 km.
2.4. The properties of coal from Barapukuria coal mine:
Table-4: The properties of coal from Barapukuria coal mine. Fig- 6: Coal sample of Barapukria Coal mine.

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2.5. Mine Details:
2.5.1. Resource in Place:
Fig-7: Longwall mining panels in Barapukuria Coal Mine, Bangladesh (after Barapukuira Coal Mining Co.
Ltd, 1998; Islam and Shinjo, 2009).

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2.5.2. 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:
1.The Gondwana Group
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.
2.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.
3.Modhupur Clay
The Modhupur Clay unit in Barapukuria coal field area is characterized by 3 to 15 meter thick silty clay.
2.6. Geological succession of Barapukuria coal Mine:
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.

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Table-5: Stratigraphic succession of the Barapukuria coal basin (Quamruzzaman et al., 2014)
2.7. 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-
• Coal Seam caveability/fragmentation.
• Effect of massive strata units in immediate/near seam roof .
• Effect of high horizontal stress ratios.
Fig-8: LTCC mininh method at Barapukria Coal Mine.

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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.
2.8. Advantages of LTCC:
• High resource recover.
• Operating cost reduction.
• High productivity.
• Mine financial performance.
• Safety.
2.9. Disadvantages of LTCC:
• The high coal loss occurring during the production of top coal, resulting in
• a significant decrease of coal recovery.
There are two shaft is used in the mine for mine entrance and existence.
2.10. 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 bunker and from there by the conveyer belt the coal is moved in the PDB on the
storage.

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Fig-9: Main Shaft at Barapukria Coal Mine.
2.11. Auxiliary Shaft:
It is used for enter and exist people or machinery and west material.
Fig - 10: Auxiliary Shaft at Barapukria Coal Mine.

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2.12. Conveyor Belt:
The coal conveyor is a very important equipment to process raw coal. The coal conveyors are mainly used to
link coal washing machines and stockpile coal into stockyard, silo, bunker, etc. Coal Port Belt Conveyor.
Fig-11: Conveyor Belt at Barapukria coal mine.
2.13. Coal yard:
A coal yard is a storage facility for the dense rock known as coal, which is used for heating and energy
purposes. Coal yards come in two basic types, one being above ground and the other being partially
underground. Several industries utilize a coal storage yard, from independent coal sales to power plants. On
every yard there are a few common tools, like enclosures, crushers, conveyors and shipping and receiving
areas.
Fig-12: Coal Yard at Barapukria Coal mine.

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2.14. 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.
Fig-13: Subsidence effect area at Barapukria Coal mine.
2.15. Crops and Vegetation: The main crops cultivated in and around mine area are paddy rice and sugar
cane whilw potato, wheat,mustard,etc. are also grown in some areas.Such vegetation and trees as karai
jarul,simul, and bamboo are growing around mine area. The local villagers cultivate mango,jackfruit,banana
and other fruits. Over 90 percent people in Barapukuria are engaged in framing while the rest serving
commercial and other professional or casual jobs.

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CHAPTER -03
Maddhapara Granite Mine Company Limited
3.1. Place:
On 9th October,2023. we reached Maddhapara Granite Mine. 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. Maddhapara hard rock Mine is
located in Maddhapara, Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Its geographical coordinates are 25 33' 15" N to 25 34" 15" N latitude
and 89° 3' 30°E to 89° 4′ 53′ E longitude.
Fig-14: Maddhapara Granite mine.

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3.2. History:
Geological Survey of Bangladesh discovered granite deposits in Dinajpur District in 1974.SNC-Lavalin
carried out a feasibility study on the site, and Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. published a detailed study. The
government of Bangladesh signed an agreement with the government of North Korea. Petrobangla gave a
turnkey contract to M/S Korea South South Corporation Corporation of North Korea to develop the
Maddhapara Granite Rock Mine Project site.The project became Maddhapara Granite Mining Company
Limited on 4 August 1998.On 25 May 2007, the North Korean company handed over the project to
Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Limited which started operating the mine from 27 May 2007.By July
2010, the Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Limited had 930 million taka with 240 million lost in 2009
alone.In September 2015, the company stopped mining due to a shortage of equipment leaving one thousand
workers without work.Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Limited signed an agreement with Germania-
Trest Consortium to develop the site further on 14 February 2014.The contractor performance was
unsatisfactory and the companies had to go to an international tribunal to settle their disputes.Germania-Trest
Consortium is a joint venture between Germania Corporation Limited, a Bangladeshi company, and JSC
TrestShakhtosPetsstroy, a Belarusian company.The tenure of the company was extended by one year in
February 2020.The tender to appoint a new contractor was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in
Bangladesh.The mine was closed for six months due to the pandemic in 2020.Delays over a new contract led
to a significant slowdown in production in August 2021 leading to more than one thousand trucks waiting to
take rocks from the mine.The company made a profit for the first time since it was founded from the 2018-
2019 fiscal year at 70 million taka.The rock production had exceeded all expectations in 2018.In 2019,
Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited managing director MD Fazlur Rahman was made the managing
director of Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Limited.The company made a profit of 220 million taka the
2019-2020 fiscal year.In March 2022, Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Limited stopped mining
activities due to a shortage of ammonium nitrate explosives.Production resumed on 28 March and stopped
again on 1 May due to the lack of explosives.The company is responsible for supplying mega projects of the

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government.The dealers of the company were charging a high price for the rocks than the rate set by the
company.
3.3. Stratigraphic succession of the Maddhapara area:
Table-6: Stratigraphic succession of the Maddhapara area.
3.4. Geology:
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) Rangpur Saddle, and

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2) Bogra shelf
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.
Fig-15: Cross sectional view of northern part of Bangladesh
Fig-16: Hydrogeological formation of MGMCL.

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3.5. Petrology:
a) Rock Type: Predominantly Diorite, Quartz Diorite and Granite.
b) Grain size: medium to coarse grain.
c) Mineralogical Composition:
1. 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
3.6. 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.
Hardness: 6.5 (Mohs Hardness Scale) .
3.7. Mining Method and Operations:
Room and Pillar method is used in production of MGMCL. The mining is done by drilling and blasting method.
Explosives are pushed is the borehole which is previously done in the location of interest. When blasting takes place
the Rock of the room are fragmented into different size. Then these are brought on the surface using the railway. If the
Grain size is too big, then it is again forced by secondary drilling and breaks down into pieces. If it is extracted for the
tiles industry, the rock is cut down with cutter machine which is usually hand driven and done by the workers under
the surface. Mine workers does these all works. They push the explosives in the boreholes, they drill the huge size

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rocks into smaller pieces and all other works involve with the extraction of ore According to the instructions of the
Engineers.
Fig-17: Underground Mining Model of MGMCL
3.8. 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 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.

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3.9. 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
3.10. 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.
3.11. 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.
1) surface building
2) underground mine area
3.12. Surface building:
Significant surface building are as follow:
1) Welfare building:
This building controlled and supplied the essential mechanical and safety 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.
2) Cage winder building:
Winder machine is situated here. This building controlled the entrance of cage shaft by winder
machine.

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• 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. Crushing plant .
Fig-18: Crusher at Maddhapara granite mine.
• 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

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Fig-19: Railway at Maddhapara granite mine.
• Electrical sub-station: the transportation cost. Under the maintenance of Petrobangla there is a
electrical substation of 2×10 MV. Without these there is a generator building, a control room.
3.13. Workshop:
All of the mechanical equipment utilized by MGMCL is repaired and manufactured at the company's
workshop. In such workplace, there are numerous machines like pushers and shearers.
Fig-20: Workshop at Maddhapara granite mine.

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3.14. Production cycle:
Fig-21: Production cycle of Maddhapara granite mine.
3.15. Uses of Products:
• River Training.
• Roads.
• Railways.
• Bridge & Heavy Construction.
• Ingredient of Cement.
3.16. Environmental Impacts:
• Subsidence in the mine area
• Lowering of ground water and pollution of ground water
• Air pollution
• Noise pollution and vibration effect
• Ecological disturbance
• Soil pollution
4. Result
We observed various mining machineries and came to know about the process. We Observed things such as
skip shaft, cage shaft, mine ventilation system, power station, miners safety, transportation. We also got idea
about, Drilling and Blasting system, Room and Pillar Method, transportation from the underground etc.
Moreover we now know how a mine works.

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5. Summary and 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.
6. Reference
• www.bcmcl.org.bd
• www.mgmcl.org.bd
• www.wikipedia.com
• www.google.com
Md. Aliur Rahman, Chowdhury Quamruzzaman, Md. Tofayal Ahmed, Md. Kamrul Islam, Md. Sadril Islam
Khan, K.M. Imam Hossain, Chowdhury Sheebly Zaman (7, July 2017) 3-Dimensional Modeling and Analysis
of Mineable Seam of Khalashpir Coal Field, Rangpur, Bangladesh. ISSN 2250-2459.
Tusher Mohanta, Sharmin Akter, Chowdhury Quamruzzaman, Md. Aliur Rahman, K. M. Imam Hossai,
Md. Rokonuzzaman (July 2017) Mining Proposal of Khalashpir Coal Field, Rangpur, Bangladesh. ISSN 2250-
2459.
Nadia Sultana Tarakki, Chowdhury Qumruzzaman, A. K. M. Golam Mostofa, Fahad Bin Sakhawat, Pavel
Khan (November 2014) Preferred Mining Method in Barapukuria Coal Mine, Dinajpur, Bangladesh. ISSN
2250-2459.
Chowdhury Quamruzzaman, A.K.M Fayazul Kabir, M.A. Malek, B.M.Rabby Hossain, A.S.M. Woobaid
Ullah (Sep-Oct. 2012) Ventilation shaft construction by conventional freezing method in Maddhapara Granite
Mine, Bangladesh. http://dx.doi.org/10.9790/1684-0240713.