Valuable minerals
OH Kabir, Wari, Dhaka-1203
With reference to a news item published under the caption 'Bangladesh has big deposit of precious sand minerals' published in a newspaper, I would like to state the following based on my practical knowledge and experience.Over the last 30 years, nothing has been done for the development and commercial utilisation of the valuable minerals zircon, rutile, ilmenite, monazite, magnetite, garnet etc found in huge quantity in Cox's Bazar. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Science and Technology, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and many other concerned agencies seem to be under the impression that the minerals found in Cox's Bazar are not fit for commercial use. They believe that the development and commercial utilisation of the minerals would involve colossal amount of capital investment, which the government cannot afford due to fund constraints. The government does not utilise the valuable minerals. The government also does not allow the private sector to use he minerals. As a result, millions of tons of valuable minerals have been lost and washed away into the sea over the last three decades. Remaining deposits of valuable minerals continue to be washed away. The valuable minerals are found not only in Cox's Bazar but also in Moheskhali Island, Teknaf, Sonadia Island, Kuakata, Nijhumdeep and in some other coastal areas. At the initial stage, we do not need a colossal amount of capital investment for development and commercial use of valuable minerals. Let us move step by step. My contention is that if we can earn money by producing salt and undertaking shrimp cultivation in the coastal areas, why can't we utilise the valuable minerals? We may extract and collect some valuable minerals in crude form with the help of ordinary magnet or electro- magnet. If the government wants, I can train the people, especially in the coastal areas, as to how, under what circumstances, time and in which season the minerals can easily be extracted and collected. The coastal people would extract, collect and store the valuable minerals in safer places and sell the minerals to the prospective buyers/firms at a reasonable price. The buyers of the minerals may export the minerals in crude form as raw material to interested foreign countries and earn foreign exchange for our country.
| 
