Bangladesh News

With help from Chinese experts, Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) has recovered mining equipment worth $ 10 million from an underground site that was sealed off in October 2005 following emission of deadly gas there.

The recovery operation launched on July 14 is the third one by the country’s first mining company. Replacement cost of the equipment at present market rate is no less than $20 million, mining sources said.

This pricey set of equipment will greatly help the loss-making BCMCL raise coal production and thus reduce its operational losses.

“Most importantly, the operation gave us priceless lessons and experience,” said a top official of the mine. “We now know how to avoid deadly carbon monoxide emission which will be a part of coal mining in the country. We have also learnt lessons in recovery operation and handling safety issues.”

Following months-long preparation and injection of anti-flammable chemicals and 3.5 lakh cubic metres of nitrogen in the sealed off site known as ‘face 1110′ at a depth of 1,100 feet, the rescue operation began on July 14. It had to be suspended on July 24 as the level of carbon monoxide shot up to 2.5 percent of the air indicating that somewhere in the mine, coal was burning.

The rescue mission returned to the spot on July 28 after pumping in more anti-flammable chemicals to continue recovery of the equipment. Then with a three-day pause from August 2, the rescue operation continues till now. Hundreds of local workers, guided by Chinese experts like Prof Yang and Prof Wen Hu, are working at the site.

“The recovered equipment include 69 pieces of hydraulic powered roof support. There are 13 more such equipment worth $ 0.8 million. We are hoping these will also be recovered in the next few days,” said the mine official.

All other equipment at the sealed off site have been recovered. These include a shearer, armoured flexible conveyor, stage loader and crusher, 600 metres of Conveyer Belt and some fire fighting devices.

These equipment were put into operation in the mine in 2004, and they are one of the two sets of basic mining equipment. The two sets are required to ensure an annual coal production of one million tonnes, 80 percent of which is supposed to be consumed by Power Development Board (PDB).

But while producing coal from ‘face 1110′ in October 2005, the BCMCL had to seal off the area along with the equipment due to a sudden rise of carbon monoxide. This gas can cause instant death and is a result of spontaneous combustion of the high grade coal at Barapukuria.

Mining sources said the disaster happened because the Chinese contractor CMC had left highly inflammable coal pits exposed to air since May 2005 and the mining authorities overlooked the matter. Mining norms dictate that coal pits should not be left exposed to air for more than 24 hours as this can lead to self-combustion of coal and emission of gas.

Ever since, the mine has barely producing coal. Mining remained totally suspended between October 2006 and April 2007 as the CMC refused to work demanding various payments, including one instalment of the Supplier’s Credit taken by Bangladesh. The suspension also affected power generation by the 250 megawatt Barapukuria plant.

In May last year, the mining operation however got a new lease of life as the government emphasised improving performance. This resulted in an increase of daily coal production and repeated attempts to recover equipment from the sealed off site.

The mine’s daily coal production jumped to 3,000 tonnes this year from less than 1,400 tonnes in 2005-06. The increased production rate will help the BCMCL achieve its annual target for the first time — this year’s being 800,000 tonnes. It will greatly reduce coal production cost this year, said an official.

“With the recovered set of equipment, we will now have a continuity of coal production. We will be able to surpass the one million tonne production target from next year,” he added.

The BCMCL loses 45 days of coal production if it uses just one set of equipment. This is because the miners install the equipment in one particular ‘coal face’, produce certain quantity of coal and then mobilise the equipment in a new coal face to begin fresh production. With two sets, the miners waste no time and can maintain continuous production.

The recovery operation also gave the miners enough knowledge that will facilitate production of about two lakh tonnes of coal from the same area, but from an opposite direction. “We shall keep this part sealed off for safety reasons. The length of the coal face is 120 metres. We can produce coal from the other side,” he pointed out.

The underground mine went into commercial production in 2005 and till date produced coal from the upper three metres of 36 metre-thick coal seam. The recovery of heavy mining equipment weighing no less than 1,300 tonnes now allows the miners to mine underneath.

“Through this operation, we have learnt that our high quality coal can light up due to oxidation. Our local engineers have learnt how to deal with this kind of coal, safe operation and an array of mining aspects. Above all, the operation has given us self-confidence which we lacked earlier,” said BCMCL Managing Director MA Aziz Khan, when contacted over telephone.

The BCMCL produced 4.21 lakh tonnes of coal from January to June this year. It aims at resuming production from ‘face 1104′ later this month and produce another 4.2 lakh tonnes by December.

Price of coal from the $250 million project was around $ 90 per tonne in 2006, when it was sold at $60 a tonne to the PDB.

The Barapukuria project was approved in March 1992 with the target of completing it on July 31, 2001 at a cost of Tk 887 crore. But the project was suspended when sub-soil waters started gushing in at a rate of 700 cubic metres on April 5, 1998 at a depth of 1,100 feet. This happened because of design flaws, according to official sources.

Through repeated rescheduling of deadlines, cost escalations and various types of irrational contractual extensions, the contractor was given seven years of extra time to complete the Project. The contractor has been given even a five-year maintenance job from June 2005.