The New Nation - Internet Edition

O.H. Kabir

This refers to four news items published separately on the first page of each national daily 1) The Janakantha dt. 25th April, 2008 under caption 'Bangladesh would change' Valuable minerals worth US Dollar 560 crore lakh available in the sea beach of Cox's Bazar, other coastal areas and also in the basin of Brahmaputra river 2) The Financial Express dt:-29th April. 2008 under caption 'high -level meeting to decide on sand export to Singapore 3) the New Nation 9th May, 2008 under caption 'Exploitation of sea beach mineral urged' and 4-) The Financial Express dt.17th May, 2008 under caption 'Govt orders study on S'pore proposal to buy coarse sand.

After decades of mysterious silence and play of ducks and drakes by our Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Science Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of Commerce, Prime Minister's Secretariat, Geological Survey of Bangladesh, Bureau of Minerals, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Export Promotion Bureau and many others the announcement of BCSIR (Bangladesh Council of Science & Industrial Research that valuable minerals Zircon, Rutile, Monazite, Magnetite, Garnet, Elmenite and Titanium etc worth US Dollar 560 lakh crore are available in sea beach of Cox's Bazar, nome other coastal areas and also in the basin of Brahmanputra river basin is of great importance and now deserves highest consideration. We however vehemently protest cogent reasons.

Why should we export our sand to Singapore ?

There is every possibility that our valuable minerals worth billions of dollars would be smuggled out of our country with the export of sand.

Over last three decades many news, reports, articles, editorials and letters have been published in our various national dailies and weeklies for the utilisation of the valuable minerals which I call Black-Gold but the authorities concerned did not take any positive step and tried to suppress the matter on one excuse or another. I left no stone unturned for the commercial use and export of the valuable minerals in crude form earlier in the public sector or in the private sector but in vain.

In this connection I am constrained to draw the kind attention of all concerned to some of the communications/letters I received from time to time from different authorities i.e. 1) Geological Survey of Bangladesh telegram No.349 dt. 11th Jan. 1971 2) Pakistan Council of Scientific & Industrial Research Laboratories, Karachi letter No.113 dt. January 13,1971 3) Geological Survey of Bangladesh telegram No.926 dt. January 23,1971 4,) BCSIR Laboratories, Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka letter No.7813 dt January 27,1971 5) Hr. S.M. Shafiul Azam, Chief Secretary, Govt of Bangladesh letter No.5-PACS dt. 26th January 1971 6) Asstt. Private Secretary to the president Govt of Bangladesh letter No. 5-PACS dt. 26th January 1971 6) Asstt. Private Secretary to the President 9) Secretary Internal Resources Division and Chairman Board of Revenue letter No. 35 dt. 22-6-1992 10) President's Secretariat ,Cabinet Division letter No. ?29 dt. 1-7-91 11) Prime Minister's Secretariat letter No. 740 dt. 11-8-1991 regarding formation of a committee on 'Black-Gold' of Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources minutes of the meeting report dt 20-9-1991 13) Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources letter No. 2./8 dt. 01-08-92 14) Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources minutes of the meeting dt 19-8-1992 15) Ministry of Energy and mineral Resources letter No. 243 dt. 18-8-92 16) Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources report dt. 8-12~92 17) Report of the Committee members of the valuable minerals of Cox's Bazar dt. 8-ll-93 19) Prime Minister' s Secretariat letter No. 25(17) dt. 01-2-94 20) Board of Revenue letter No. 836 dt 31-05-99 21) Ministry of Commerce letter No. 190 dt. 6-6-9) 22) Ministry of Commerce letter No. 402 dt. 27-10-99 23) Ministry of Commerce letter No. 262 dt.6-6-2001 2l) f1inistry of Science Information and Communication Technology letter No. 490 dt.16-4-2002 25) Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission letter No. 10(3)92 dt 05-02-2002 26) President's Secretariat letter No. 51 (2) dt. 12-2001 27) Ministry of, Science Information and Communication Technology letter No. 323 dt. 27-8-2005 28) Prime Minister's Secretariat letter No. 96 dt. 6-1-2004 29) Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources letter No. 839 dt. 17-6-2003 Prime Ministers Secretariat Letter No. 171 dt 21--2004 31) Ministry of Commerce letter No. 2005 (part-1) dt. L-11-2005 32) Export Bureau letter No. 640 dt. 16-7-1992 33) Export Promotion Bureau letter No. 612 dt-25-10-2005 34) Export Promotion Bureau letter No. 430 dt. 10-4-2006 35) Ministry of Commerce letter 2/Panna (4)-2 (Part -1)/15 drt-28-01-2007 etc., etc.

(If any person, scientist, geologist, journalist, industrialist Govt official civil, army or intelligence Department, RAB interested in seeing the relevant letters and other Press clippings on valuable minerals 'Black-Gold' he is most welcome with prior appointment)

I would also like to mention here that long after 36 years, about a year, ago I revisited some of the mineral deposit sites in Cox's Bazar. To my big surprise, disappointment I again found huge deposits of valuable minerals 'Black-Gold' lying unutilised., wasted. and washed away into the sea.

If we do not extract and collect the valuable minerals now within a few years valuable minerals worth billions of dollars would be lost forever due to world climatic change, green house effect and. rise in the sea water level.

We may extract and collect some of the minerals easily and at a low cost in a particular season and time.

Would our Chief Adviser caretaker government Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed look into the matter, hold a high level enquiry and save our valuable minerals 'Black-Gold' worth billions of dollars in the greater interest of our economy, financial benefit and welfare of our poor people?