Geographic location of minerals in Bangladesh

Natural Gas: Natural gas, played vital role as main energy source to the rapid development of
Bangladesh, production and consumption has been increased drastically during last decades.
Geological and geophysical explorations have identified significant quantities of natural gas
reserves in Bangladesh. Fortunately, there are 27 gas fields in Bangladesh till now. The Bengal
delta has a hydrocarbon-bearing sediment structure with rich mineral deposits. The
northeastern Sylhet Division is the country's largest natural gas and crude oil producer,
followed by Chittagong Division, Dhaka Division and Barisal Division; while dozens of offshore
blocks lay in the Bay of Bengal. Natural gas from Bangladesh is renowned for being very pure
with a composition of 95–99% methane and almost no sulphur. The current major gas
producing fields are Titas, Kailastila, Habiganj, Rashidpur, Jalalabad and Sangu. Brief
descriptions of some individual gas fields are given below:
 The Sylhet gasfield is located about 20 km northeast of Sylhet town. Seven wells were
drilled, out of which Sylhet-1 was blown out, Sylhet-3 and 6 are producing gas and
Sylhet-7 is the only well where oil was discovered.
 The Chhatak gasfield was discovered in January 1959 in Sunamganj district. It was drilled
up to 2,133m depth. Production in the field was suspeneded since 1985 because of
excessive water flow.
 The Titas gasfield is located in Brahmanbaria district. Till 2000 a total of 14 wells were
drilled in the field. This field has a dome-like structure covering an area 16 km by 4 km.
Most of the gas producing sands are from depths ranging from 2,616 to 3,124m. The
Titas field has 4.13 Tcf of gas initially in place (GIIP) of which 2.1 Tcf is considered
recoverable reserve. Till the end of 2000, a total of 1.72 Tcf of the gas or about 75% of
the recoverable reserve has been extracted.
 The Rashidpur gasfield was discovered in Maulvi Bazar district in 1960. It has a GIIP of
2.24 Tcf of which 1.30 Tcf is considered recoverable. The structure is a narrow
asymmetrical anticline with about 40 km length and 5 km width.
 The Kailastila gasfield, located in Sylhet district. It is one of the largest gasfields in
Bangladesh. It has GIIP of 3.65 Tcf with a recoverable reserve of 2.52 Tcf of gas. The
Kailashtila field produces a high amount of condensate along with the gas.
  The Habiganj gasfield is another large field discovered in 1963. The field has a closure 11
km long and 4.5 km wide. It is known for excellent quality reservoirs with up to 30%
porosity and several darcy permeability. This is one of the major gas producers at the
present time.
 The Bakhrabad gasfield is located in Comilla district. The field was producing only 35
million cubic feet of gas per day. It is believed the field will be depleted soon.
 The Semutang gasfield, located in Khagrachhari district, is the only field in the chittagong
hill tracts. It was discovered by the National Oil Company OGDC of Pakistan in 1969.
They drilled four wells but wells 3 and 4 were found dry. This field is not in production.
 The Kutubdia gasfield, discovered in Bay of Bengal by the Union Oil Company of USA in
1976, is about 92 km southwest of Chittagong Port.
 The Begumganj gasfield, located in Noakhali district, was discovered in 1977 by
petrobangla, and being small has not yet been developed.

COAL: Coal first discovered in the country by Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) in 1959 was
at great depth. Geological survey of bangladesh (GSB) continued its efforts for exploration that
resulted in the discovery of 4 coalfields. BHP Minerals, a US-Australian company, discovered a
field in 1997 totalling 5 coalfields. All the discovered fields lie in the north-western part of the
country. The of location these 5 coal fields are,

 Jamalpur
 Baropukuria
 Fulbari
 Khalashpur
 Dighirpar

At present coal is being produced commercially only from the Barapukuria underground coal
mine in Dinajpur district that has gone through a period of 8 years of construction and one year
of production. Current production rate is about 1500 tons per day. The plan to establish an
open-pit mine in nearby Phulbari was aborted last year in the wake of mass protest by the local
people. Coal in the Jamalganj-Paharpur area is too deep to mine. Extraction of coal bed
methane from this field is under consideration.
Consturction Sand: the white sand samples SD01 to SD03 were reported to have
been procured from the River Brahmaputra, Mymenshingh, which is 120 km north of
Dhaka. The red sand samples RS01 and RS02, which are granular sands used in casting,
were obtained from the rivers Surma and Kushiyara, Sylhet, which is 250 km northeast
of Dhaka city The use of hollow concrete bricks as a construction material in Bangladesh
is new. Envir- onmentalists believe that these materials hold prom- ise because their
fabrication is free from pollution. However, the materials are not yet popular because
they are expensive compared with conventional bricks.

Limestonr: In Bangladesh there are surface and sub-surface deposits of limestone. The
surface to near surface deposits are at st martin's island of Cox's Bazar district and
Bhangerghat-Lalghat-Takerghat of Sunamganj district. The subsurface deposit is present
at Joypurhat of Joypurhat district.
 Surface to near sub-surface deposits: St. Martin’s Island of Cox’s Bazar,
Bhangerghat-Lalghat-Takerghat of Sunamganj district, Sitakund limestone
(Miocene age) and Near to Dauki River, Jaflong, Sylhet district.

 Sub-surface deposits: Joypurhat-Jamalganj, Joypurhat district; Kuchma of Bogra;

Patnitala and Tajpur, Badalgachi upazila, Naogaon.
Beach Sand Heavy Minerals: Beach Sand Minerals Exploitation Centre is an
autonomous national research institute which carries out research on sand and minerals in
Bangladesh and is located in Kalatali, Cox's Bazar District, Bangladesh. After systematic
surveys during 1967 to 1969 it was recognised that a potential zone of heavy minerals exists
along the entire coastal belt, mainly from Cox';s Bazar to Badarmokam, and in some areas of
maheshkhali, kutubdia and Matarbari islands. Later, in 1975, a pilot plant was installed at
Kalatali, Cox';s Bazar with the cooperation of the Australian Government to sample, separate
and assess the commercial viability of the heavy mineral content in the placer deposits. In this
plant, a flow sheet adopted by the Australian Mineral Development Laboratory was used to
separate heavy minerals. By 1985 the nearly 550 km-long coastline of Bangladesh was
surveyed either partially or completely to map the beach sand heavy minerals. It was found that
the reserves were concentrated mainly along the sea beaches of chittagong and Cox';s Bazar
districts. On the basis of surveys carried out so far along the coast of Bangladesh a number of
heavy mineral placers are delineated. Until now seventeen placer deposits are found; fifteen are
in the Cox';s Bazar-Chittagong sea beaches and nearby offshore islands. In fact seven are from
the Cox';s Bazar-Teknaf sea beaches (Cox';s Bazar, Inani, Silkhali, teknaf, Sabrang and
Badarmokam), seven from Maheshkhali Island, one each from Matarbari, Kutubdia and Nijhum
islands, and Kuakata.
White Clay: White Clay There are surface to near surface deposits of white clay in Bijoypur
and Gopalpur area of Netrokona district, Nalitabari of Sherpur district, Haidgaon of Chittagong
district and Baitul Izzat of Satkania upazila, Chittagong district. Besides there are subsurface
deposits of white clay' in Maddhyapara, Barapukuria, Dighipara of Dinajpur district and
Patnitala of Naogaon district. The exposed white clay is not good in quality. It is used in the
ceramic factories of Bangladesh after mixing with high quality imported clay.

Brick Clay: Brick Clay In Bangladesh the mineralogical, chemical and engineering properties of
Pleistocene and Holocene brick clays of Dhaka, Narayanganj and Narsingdi districts are well
documented. The bulk chemistry and engineering properties of the Holocene and Pleistocene
samples have been found satisfactory for manufacturing good quality bricks. These are being
exploited and widely used in the country.