RE: Govt to prioritise domestic coal, stone over imports13 May 2026 08:15
Carrying on from searchers post…
Bangladesh has three further coal fields beyond Barapukuria and Jamalganj. The Dighipara deposit in Dinajpur, discovered in 1995, holds an estimated 865 million tonnes of coal. Khalaspir in Rangpur contains 685 million tonnes and Fulbari 572 million tonnes.
Feasibility studies have been completed for four of the country’s five coal mines. The energy division, however, has taken no final decision on any of them. Successive governments launched several initiatives over the studies, but none reached a conclusion.
BHP Minerals discovered the Fulbari field in Dinajpur back in 1997. BCMCL pegs its reserves at 572 million tonnes. The agency calculates that developing the mine would require roughly $15 billion in capital and operating costs. If that investment were secured, the coal extracted could be worth around $83 billion at Barapukuria prices.
The extraction method at Fulbari has been debated for decades. Local opposition has been the strongest in particular. In 2006, protests against open-pit mining left three people dead and many wounded. Demonstrators argued that open-pit extraction would wreck local livelihoods, homes and the surrounding ecology. Under fierce public pressure, the authorities signed the “Fulbari agreement”.
After 2006, the project lay dormant for nearly two decades. Amid a worsening energy crisis, the former interim government moved to revive open-pit mining at the site. Energy specialists, economists and others then urged the unelected administration to refrain from such activity.
On March 11 last year, GCM Resources announced on its website a contract for Fulbari coal mining infrastructure construction with Power Construction Corporation of China, the giant known globally as PowerChina. The deal tasks PowerChina with developing the contentious Fulbari field in Dinajpur using open-pit methods and building a power plant of more than 6,500 megawatts. GCM’s subsidiary still operates in Bangladesh under the name Asia Energy Corporation.
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