The country’s rugged terrain provides sites to harvest hydropower, which has driven rapid growth in the transport and construction sectors, including the startup of a number of local cement operations.
[1] The country’s mineral industry was small and insignificant to its economy and was dominated by the production of cement, coal, dolomite, gypsum, and limestone.
Known resources included deposits of beryl, copper, graphite, lead, mica, pyrite, tin, tungsten, and zinc.
The company was a joint venture of the Government, Marubeni Corp. of Japan, and the local Tashi Commercial Corp.[1] Dolomite quarrying near the Pugli hills at Gomtu in southwestern Bhutan affected agriculture (tea plantations) and wild animals in neighboring Indian State of West Bengal.
Dolomite sediments turned the tea plantations’ soil alkaline and airborne dust from the quarry choked the plants.