The Weight of Limestone

By Md. Mosharraf Hossain

During the British Raj, Chhatak became famous for its cottage limestone industry. At that time, Khasi Hills' limestone quarries were carried to Chhatak, calcined to make lime and supplied to Bengal's vast market. The British were involved in the lime trade, as proved from inscriptions in the stone-built monument still seen in Chhatak, in remembrance of some white traders.

Industrialists grasped their opportunity in 1940; the Assam Bengal Cement Factory was built on the Surma riverbank, using Khasi Hills' limestone, supplying fresh cement to all Bengal by river route. Since then, the factory worked year-long, while seeing ups and downs in the region's cement industry.

Khasi Hills limestone, given to India under the Radcliff demarcation of the Indo-Pak border in 1947, continued uninterrupted till 1965, when the Indo-Pakistan war caused it to stop.

Then the EPIDC opened a new limestone mine at Takerghat, north of Sunamganj, and provided an alternative supply source of raw material for cement manufacturing.

This quarry, then the only operating East Pakistan mine, continued till 1990, supplying supplementary limestone quantities to add to the Khasi Hills supply for Chhatak, which resumed cement production after independence.

The huge reserves in the Khasi Hills, and natural gas availability, attracted internationally reputed cement industrialists who built a multinational company, the Lafarge cement plant. Started in 2006, Lafarge Cement now listens to its death-song, since on February 5, the Indian Supreme Court ordered it to stop its limestone mining operations at Khasi Hills.

The Indian Supreme Court restrained the French cement giant from carrying out limestone mining in Meghalaya for its Bangladesh cement plant, saying mining cannot be allowed in the Khasi hill's eco-fragile area.

The New Delhi press report says, "The 255-million dollar Lafarge Surma Cement project at Chhatak, Sunamganj is wholly dependent on the limestone extracted from Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills. Limestone is transported from the Indian state to Bangladesh on a 17 km-long conveyor belt."

A special forest bench, headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, stayed mining activities on the basis of a Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) report.

The Indian environment ministry concluded that permission to extract limestone from Shella village in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills was allegedly obtained by showing the forestland barren. "In this eco-fragile area, we will not allow mining," said the bench, also comprising Justices S.H. Kapadia and Aftab Alam.

"You [Lafarge] stay it for one month in terms of the MoEF report," the bench said, disagreeing with the company's suggestion that work at the quarries continue, on payment of amount higher than the land's net present value.

The apex court bench said it could grant no relief at this stage, as the allegations are serious. It asked the company to file an affidavit in response to the MoEF report and posted the matter for a March 19 hearing.

Lafarge Surma Cement Limited suffered a 7 percent decline in share trade in the Dhaka stock exchange on February 7, upon news of the court order.

"Such order will eventually halt the production of the company," said an analyst in the Dhaka Stock Exchange.This case illustrates risk of investment, involving multi-country players, especially when an alternative raw material supply is less likely for manufacturing a finished product.

Bangladesh's limestone deposit is almost nonexistent on the surface. Surma limestone's dip-down portion at Takerghat has been exhausted, and its remaining reserve is not economically viable for mining.

The only other limestone deposit is at Jaipurhat, which had been on the anvil for implementation till 1985, but the stream of clinker grinding plants emerging in the private sector, based on imported clinker, made cement an easily available commodity in Bangladesh, and the Jaipurhat limestone mining and cement project died prematurely in the early nineties.

Jaipurhat limestone is a high quality ingredient for cement manufacturing. Detailed feasibility studies by several international mining and cement companies had verified the project's techno-economic feasibilities and endorsed the programme.

The only stumbling block at the time was to sink two shafts 1500 feet deep to reach the limestone bed.

Though appeared difficult, Chinese and Korean miners have constructed 4 deeper shafts in a coal and another granite mine in Bangladesh, under similar geological conditions. These shafts worked perfectly. So, limestone mining at Jaipurhat must be earnestly taken up and a mine, as was approved by the Bangladesh government earlier, quickly implemented.

Fortunately, the Geological Survey of Bangladesh has confirmed the presence of a limestone bed at Patnitala, closer to the surface than at Jaipurhat, which could be developed after conducting a techno-economic feasibility study.

Khasi Hills limestone could have been a cement source for not only Bangladesh but also West Bengal and eastern India. The almost inexhaustible limestone deposit in the Meghalaya remains unutilized, for lack of infrastructure and difficulties in transporting finished products to the market. Non-availability of fuel is also a major block in developing a cement industry in Meghalaya.

In fact, a cement plant at Cherapunji, based on Khasi Hills' limestone, closed for many reasons, especially fuel and water; two main ingredients for cement manufacturing.

Such regional cooperation issues can only be considered under a different mindset, which may not be easily seen in this part of the world. Technical and political progressive thinking could be blown away by other factors, including legal requirements, as was demonstrated in this case.

Such impediments in cooperation were also observed when the transfer of an enclave to Bangladesh was halted by a court order, creating a serious block in implementing a political accord in the early days of independent Bangladesh.

The issue is relevant to those experts advocating open pit mining of coal in Bangladesh. If India doesn't allow mining in a place like Shela in the Khasi Hills, then the dream, of going 450 feet deep, removing the rich topsoil from the fertile agricultural land, in and around Dinajpur, a major rice-growing area, needs to be revisited.

Again, another relevant question comes to mind. How have our country's environmentalists allowed the mining of low-grade high sulphur coal, under almost similar conditions as in the Khasi Hills, for export to Bangladesh, to burn in its soil and pollute our country's environment?

Cement is a key input for the construction industry. The so-called cement plants in Bangladesh are actually clinker grinding plants, having only the ball mill or roller mill of the entire cement-making process.

It could be cheaper to import finished bulk cement, except that cement quality deteriorates on a sea voyage, and clinker offers a better transportation mode of finished product. An integrated cement plant is the real answer for our cement supply, if limestone input can be ensured from any viable source.

Petrobangla should immediately revive and implement the Jaipurhat limestone mining and cement project. Alternatively, our government can offer to the private sector in the country the development of Jaipurhat limestone mining and implementation of an integrated cement plant.

The huge cement market in Bangladesh and adjoining areas may be difficult to ignore and any stopgap attempt to meet the cement demand may not be economical in the long run.

**Md. Mosharraf Hossain is a former Chairman of Petrobangla.

via The Daily Star