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Wardell Armstrong, Mining, Minerals and Environmental Consultants, Lancaster Building, High Street, newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs ST5 1PQ, UK
Bangladesh is a flat, mainly agricultural country with a population exceeding 110 million (770 people per square kilometre). The country occupies a delta plain at the confluence of the two great river systems: the Ganges (Padma) and the Brahmaputra (Jamuna). The country’s complex geological history is largely obscured by a ubiquitous cover of late Tertiary to Quaternary sediments, up to several kilometres thick. This has hampered industrial development as the bulk of the country’s minerals are concealed by this thick cover, making them difficult to identify, evaluate and exploit. Recently, Bangladesh has begun to exploit natural gas from the tectonic belt in the east of the country for electricity generation. Much of the electricity in the west of the country is transmitted large distances from the power stations in the east resulting in intermittent supply and high transmission losses. Permian (Gondwana) coal was discovered in NW Bangladesh in the 1960s, and soon a substantial deposit had been evaluated in Jamalganj, near Bogra. Although these relatively deep reserves were not developed, the Geological Survey of Bangladesh continued with a programme of regional exploration, recognizing that other, shallower, deposits might exist to the north of Bogra and Jamalganj. In 1985, a ‘wildcat’ exploration borehole drilled on a gravity anomaly at Barapukuria discovered substantial thicknesses of coal. After further drilling, the Government of Bangladesh requested international technical assistance for the full evaluation of the deposit and a feasibility study to evaluate its potential. In 1987, the British Government’s Overseas Development Administration (ODA) engaged Wardell Armstrong, International Mining Consultants, to carry out the study in two phases. This paper is a brief case history of the Barapukuria Coal project, from discovery to evaluation. If developed, the coal mine and dedicated coal-fired power-station have the potential to transform NW Bangladesh economically and industrially.
