Mining & Natural Resources
Extraction, licensing and resource development.
Bangladesh is not thought of as a mining jurisdiction, and its hydrocarbon story dominates the conversation. The delta nonetheless sits above a sedimentary basin containing commercially relevant non-metallic deposits, and the country imports large volumes of precisely the materials it holds: coal, limestone for cement clinker, hard rock aggregate, silica sand and construction sand.
The defined deposits are concentrated in the northwest — the coal basins of the Dinajpur, Rangpur and Joypurhat districts, and the Maddhapara hard rock body — with limestone in the northeast around Sunamganj and silica sand in Sylhet and the eastern hill districts. Two state-operated mines are in production. The remainder of the resource is defined to varying degrees and largely undeveloped.
Development is constrained less by geology than by three things. First, hydrogeology: the delta’s shallow aquifer and dense settlement make open-cut extraction socially and technically fraught, and underground methods carry a materially higher cost. Second, a licensing regime that is codified but lightly exercised. Third, an unresolved national position on domestic coal extraction that has persisted for years and should be assumed to remain contested.
Structural and institutional reference points. Figures are stated only where they are matters of public record.
What is available, what stands in the way, and what we do about it.
- The licensing authority for prospecting licences, exploration licences and mining leases under the mineral resources legislation.
- The national geoscience institution responsible for geological mapping, exploration data and resource assessment.
- The ministry division carrying policy responsibility for mineral resources and hydrocarbons.
- The state corporation whose operating subsidiaries run the country’s producing coal and hard rock mines.
- Issues environmental clearance. Extractive projects sit in the category requiring full environmental impact assessment.
- Administer acquisition, requisition and compensation where land must be assembled for a project.
These institutions are named because they are the relevant public bodies in this sector. Fratres claims no relationship with, endorsement by, or mandate from any of them.
The constraint is water, not geology.
The deposits are real and, in several cases, well located relative to rail and road. What governs whether they can be worked is what sits above and around them: a shallow aquifer that supports irrigated agriculture, and settlement density among the highest in the world.
Any credible development case in Bangladeshi minerals begins with dewatering, subsidence and resettlement, and only then turns to grade and tonnage. Sponsors who invert that order spend exploration budgets on assets that were never going to be permitted.
Mining & Natural Resources: begin a conversation.
The most useful first conversation is a specific one — the asset, the counterparty, or the approval that has stalled. Enquiries are reviewed by the partnership and answered directly.
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