Delink forest approval from wildlife plan for Gua mines: SAIL

Mining at Gua and its expansion are integral to boosting company's hot metal capacity

State-owned SAIL has approached the Environment Ministry to delink the grant of forest clearance to Gua iron ore mines in Jharkhand from finalisation of Integrated Wildlife Management Plan (IWMP) for the area as it does not fall under the conservation reserve category.

The request was made by SAIL Chairman C S Verma in a recent letter to Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), official sources said.

The Expert Committee, which has prepared the IWMP, has excluded the area of existing and proposed leases at Gua mines from being declared as Conservation Reserve under the Saranda forest division, the SAIL Chairman said in his letter, adding that his mines naturally get excluded from the wildlife plan.

SAIL is bearing the cost of preparing IWMP and would share the burden of its implementation in proportion with the area the company holds, Verma further said while emphasising that the Rs 4,700 crore investment for Gua mines is stuck for the want of forest clearance.

The IWMP is under consideration for government approval.

The company has also sought Stage-I (or in-principle) forest clearance for entire 636 hectares at the Durgaiburu lease of Gua mines, the sources said, adding that SAIL only has a temporary work permit (valid till May 13) for mining in parts of the area.

Mining at Gua and its expansion are integral to boosting SAIL's hot metal capacity -- the benchmark for steel output -- to 21 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by March 2014. With the increase in steel production capacity, SAIL's iron ore needs will almost double to 39 MTPA.

Of this, Gua mines alone will provide 25 per cent of SAIL's iron ore needs as the company has plans to ramping up the capacity there to 10 milllion tonnes per annum (MTPA) from existing 2.4 MTPA at an investment of Rs 4,700 crore. The investment plan also includes construction of 12.5 MTPA iron ore beneficiation plant and 4 MTPA pellet plant.

SAIL currently meets all its iron ore requirements from its captive mines and is investing over Rs 10,000 crore to expand their total production capacity to 39 MTPA.

Last year, the company had also approached the Prime Minister's Project Monitoring Group, set up to expedite approvals of stalled infrastructure proposals, seeking final forest and environment clearances for mining and capacity expansion at the Gua mines.

The nearly a century old mines were originally alloted to IISCO's Burnpur plant. SAIL became its operator after merging IISCO with itself in 2006.

Mining at the Gua mines had stopped in June 2011 due to expiry of approvals. Later, in April 2013, it resumed after a temporary work permit was granted by the MoEF to SAIL.

The 4 MTPA iron ore pellet plant, proposed to be set up in the Gua mines, will be SAIL's first captive pellet plant. The company also has plans to use 2.5 MTPA iron ore fines from the 40 MTPA dumps for its beneficiation plant.