Bangladesh News

The troubled Barapukuria coalmine struck a record coal production in its history Sunday extracting 4,085 tonnes of coal in a single day, which is almost three times higher than it normally produced last year.

Sources said since the Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) authorities started mining from a new phase, Phase-1103, it was being able to produce high volume of coal because of better working environment, good coal seam and better equipment condition.

Last month the mine broke its past record by producing 3,685 tonnes from the new phase.

With Chinese company CMC spearheading the production, the BCMCL started mining at this phase from January 14. In 20 days since then it has produced 52,000 tonnes of coal. The CMC set a goal to produce 80,000 tonnes of coal in February.

The daily good production has also ensured uninterrupted power production from the 250 megawatt coal-fired power plant at the mine site operated by the Power Development Board (PDB).

“The working condition in the new phase is much better than that of the last coal phase. The mine temperature here is 28 degrees Celsius, which is much lower than the last phase. In the last phase, miners had to take rest every hour because of the heat. Here, miners can work normally. As a result, our productivity has increased,” said an official.

In addition, the mining equipment has been overhauled in the last two months to ensure efficiency.

Meanwhile, the energy ministry has prepared a proposal to increase the sale price of Barapukuria coal. The new recommended price is $71.5 per tonne. The proposal is expected to be sent for approval to the Executive Committee on National Economic Council (Ecnec) soon.

The price was previously fixed at $60 per tonne when the Barapukuria power plant started purchasing the coal for power generation.

The mine was incurring heavy

losses due to various problems, especially due to poor production, and the BCMCL had been asking the government to increase its price following the international trend.

Accordingly the government formed a committee comprising members from the BCMCL, PDB, Petrobangla and the ministry to recommend a price. The BCMCL insisted on a price tag of around $80 but this was turned down because the PDB, being the main buyer of the coal, itself did not enjoy the freedom of a commercial power tariff.

“Our key focus should be producing coal as cost effective as possible. Increasing its price is not the ultimate solution–as it will affect the PDB as well as it will turn away general buyers including brick kiln owners,” said a Petrobangla high official.

The reason for BCMCL’s loss is not low price, but high production cost. It had previously failed to produce half the coal of its target resulting in cost escalation. “Therefore, the only way to go is to increase production,” he said.

The underground mine was designed to produce coal from two phases simultaneously to achieve a daily production target of 2,400 tonnes. But it was not possible because one set of mining equipment had to be abandoned in mine Phase-1110 in 2005 due to emission of lethal gas in that area.

“We are now producing coal using just one set of mining equipment, as the other set remains stuck in a sealed-off phase. Considering the economic importance of the mine, the government should emphasise the recovery of the equipment so that the BCMCL can increase production,” he added.

The BCMCL targets to produce eight lakh tonnes of coal this year, of which the power plant will consume six lakh tonnes.

Even though the mine was supposed to be completed in 1998, the project remains unfinished in parts and the mine is producing less than half of its “revised” target production. Originally the mine, being built at a cost of around Tk 800 crore was supposed to produce 60 million tonnes of coal in 30 years. But following a technical disaster, the mine was redesigned in 1998 putting the production target at just 30 million tonnes at a cost of Tk 1,600 crore.