The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has allowed eight mines in Karnataka to resume mining activities.
Mr H.R. Srinivasa, Director, Department of Mines and Geology, Karnataka, said: “The CEC has approved the rehabilitation and resettlement plan submitted by these eight companies. Now these companies have to submit a detail production plan to the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) to resume their mining activities.”
“Their combined capacity is 5.5 million tonnes a year. Of these eight mines, six fall under Category A and three under Category B,” he added.
Under Category A are working leases and non-working leases where no illegality or marginal illegality was found.
In Category B are mining leases, where illegal mining by way of mining pits outside the sanctioned lease areas have been found to be up to 10 per cent of the lease area, and waste dumps outside the sanctioned lease areas up to 15 per cent of the lease area.
The eight mines are RBSSN Ferrous Industries, Hospet; B Kumar Gowda & Sons, Bellary; VESCO, Sandur Mineral Enterprises Ltd, Chitradurga; Nadeem Minerals, Sandur; MML’s Thimappagudi Mines, Sandur; Zenith Mining, Bellary and Sesa Goa’s mines at Chitradurga.
“Officials of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education are currently touring the districts of Tumkur, Chitradurga and Bellary in Karnataka, as part of second round rehabilitation plan implementation inspection, involving 12 companies,” said Mr Srinivasa.
“ The CEC’s clearance is expected to ease availability of iron ore in the domestic market,” he added.
Earlier, addressing the OreTeam’s second annual meet on a session on ‘Karnataka: Past, Present and Future’, Mr Srinivasa said Karnataka’s mining royalties have been steadily increasing.
In 2010-11, with a production of 33 million tonnes, the State collected Rs 520 crore. In 2011-12, with one-third reduction in ore production at 22 million tonnes, it collected Rs 730 crore.
“Now with more mining companies commencing production, we expect to maintain the same trend and collect more royalties this fiscal,” he added.