Bangladesh's state-owned Petrochemical company, Petrobangla, signed an 82 million dollar deal with two Chinese companies to extract coal from one of the country's biggest mines, a junior minister said Sunday.
"Under the agreement signed Saturday, the Chinese companies will extract 4.75 million tonnes coal from Boropukuria coalmine in northern Bangladesh," the country's junior energy minister AKM Mosharraf Hussain said.
The two Chinese companies, China National Machinery Export Import Corporation and Xushou Coal Mining Group, will be paid 82 million dollars to manage the mine for the next six years, Hussain said.
Some seventy percent of the coal will be used for power generation in Bangladesh and the rest will be sold out on the local market, Hussain said.
Situated in northern Dinjapur district, 300 kilometres (200 miles) north of the capital Dhaka, Boropukuria is home to one of country's biggest and best quality coal mines.
Studies carried out by Petrobangla estimate the mine has reserves of 390 million tonnes of fine quality, low-ash and sulphur-free bituminous coal.
