DHADING, JULY 18

Government owned, Nepal Metal Company, based in Dhading, has remained closed for the past 12 years.

The company has its mining asite stretched along the foot of Mt Ganesh between Dhading’s Rubi Valley and Rasuwas’s Amachhodingmo Rural Municipality.

According to the company former chairperson Netraraj Poudel, so far Rs 180 million has been spent for infrastructure construction and study of the prospect of mining of zinc and lead from the mountain vicinity. The site located at an altitude of about 3,300 metres from the sea level has a cold weather round the year and experiences snowfall for four months.

The company has a building constructed some 25 years ago, which has developed cracks in the aftermath of the devastating 2015 earthquakes.

Staffers of the company have been waiting for the company to resume operation for 12 years. Appointed some 25 years ago, some of the employees of the company from drivers to tunnel diggers are still on the job. During all these years, the company has kept the employees by paying salaries ranging from Rs 17,000 to Rs 30,000.

Fifty-two years ago, an engineer from the Indian Birla Company had discovered that the mountain contained huge deposits of zinc and lead. He did so by testing the water flowing down from Mt Ganesh.

Following the discovery, Nepali Army had constructed a 105km road to Somdang in the mining site from Nuwakot’s Trisuli. The road construction had started in 1987 and concluded after two years.

“We’ve been living in this building all these years by bracing cold. We are still hopeful that the company will resume operation,” said a staffer, Shuvaram Tamang.

“Fifteen years ago, the government relieved some 300 staffs by giving different facilities, but retained us to guard the office,” said Kaman Singh Gurung, who is now guarding the office after working as a driver for the company for 25 years.

Of the 10 employees, high-level employees, including accountant, live in Kathmandu as there is no work at the site. Other seven employees guard the company premises in turn, where many equipment remain unused.

“The company was closed in the fiscal 2005/06 citing the difficulty to carry out excavation work amidst the armed conflict, but it hasn’t resumed work all these years,” said the company’s former chair Poudel.

Dhading Chamber of Commerce and Industry former chairperson Dhruba Bahadur Thapa hoped that resumption of the company would give a great fillip to the economy of the country. “Sites for excavation have been identified and required infrastructure is already built. Resumption of the company will definitely benefit the country,” he said.

As per a study, so far the sites containing around 300,000 tonnes of ores in the vicinity of the mountain have been identified.

“Lead and zinc to be produced from the ores is expected to meet the country’s demand for 40 years,” said Thapa.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 19, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.