Madhyapara Hard Rock Mine Halts Production Over Explosive Shortage

Stone extraction at the Madhyapara hard rock mine in Dinajpur has been temporarily halted after running out of imported ammonium nitrate, a key explosive required for underground mining.

According to mine sources, production stopped on Tuesday morning. While extraction is on hold, routine maintenance work remains ongoing.

Syed Rafizul Islam, General Manager (Administration and Services) of the mine, confirmed the shutdown. He stated that the supply disruption has paused production, but anticipated that a new shipment of explosives would arrive within the next 15 days.

The Germania Trest Consortium (GTC), the contractor responsible for the mine's operation and maintenance, assured that all other auxiliary activities will continue normally despite the production pause.

This is not the first time the country's only underground stone quarry has faced supply chain bottlenecks. Similar explosive shortages forced shutdowns recently in 2025 and 2022, alongside previous disruptions in 2014, 2015, and 2018.

Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Limited (MGMCL) began commercial operations on May 25, 2007. It currently employs around 750 workers across three shifts, yielding an average daily extraction of 5,500 metric tons of stone.