A Company of Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) Under Energy and Mineral Resources Division Under Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Bangladesh The Barapukuria coal deposit was discovered in 1985 while the
Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) drilled a wild-cat borehole
to investigate a negative gravity anomaly in the area. Since then,
a total of 35 deep bo
reholes were drilled, delimiting the area of
coal resources and determining the structure, and the coal seam
characteristics in terms of thickness and quality. The surface geology over the entire project area comprises the
Tertiary Dupi Tila formation, which unconformably overlays the
Gondwana (Permian) coal-bearing sediments. A major fault forms the eastern limit of the deposit,
beyond which, Archaean basement rocks (Pre-Cambrian) are
present immediately below the Dupi Tila. Several lesser faults were
identified within the coal basin by geophysical seismic survey. The Gondwana sequence comprises predominantly sandstones, with
subordinate siltstones and mudstones, which contain up to six coal
seams in the centre of the basin. The lowest of these, Seam VI is
the principal target seam of the mine project, and has an average
thickness of 36m. It consists of a weakly-caking bituminous coal with
average sulphur content of about 0.53% making it an ideal fuel for
power generation, which is the primary identified market for the
coal. In-seam inclusions of dirt (non-coal material) are variable,
but mainly restricted to the uppermost and lowermost sections of
the seam. The western, northern and southern limits of the deposit are formed
by the subcrop of seam VI beneath the basal Dupi Tila unconformity. An in-situ reserve base of more than 200 Mt of coal has been
calculated for the entire area. Recovery will be constrained by mine
layout, method of extraction, and the number of slices to be mined,
all of which will be dependent on experience gained during the
initial production phases. Currently, the mine has adopted Long Wall Top Coal Caving (LTCC)
method to yield maximum quantity and in full swing production is
going on as per schedule of production and coal is being sold to
Barapukuria 250MW Thermal Power Plant and rest to other buyers.
