Bangladesh on Sunday announced that it has discovered a huge extractable reserve of limestone, the main ingredient used to make cement, in the country’s north.

“We found the reserve of Sylhet Limestone (a type of limestone) at Panchbibi area of Joypurhat while we were carrying out test drilling 1,498 feet beneath the surface. The reserve appeared to be huge,” Geological Survey of Bangladesh director-general Ms Moonira Akhter Chowdhury told PTI.

She said the area of the basin where the limestone was found was 96 square kilometres and the initial studies suggested the thickness of the reserve could be as high as 100 feet.

“The drilling is underway and until now we could drill only 18 feet of the deposit. We expect we could give you a clearer picture about the reserve in next one month,” Ms Chowdhury said.

The GSB chief said the limestone find was significant also because the coal was generally found beneath the limestone deposit.

Geologists say 80 per cent of the ingredients of cement is limestone while it has numerous other uses as a building material, as aggregate for the base of roads, as white pigment or filler in products such as toothpaste or paints and as a chemical feedstock.

“The limestone is important for Bangladesh’s growing construction industry as currently the mineral is imported from other countries for the cement and construction industry,” a GSB official said.

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