IDCOL asks IIT-KGP for prospecting of Tangarapada mines

The state owned Industrial Development Corporation (Idcol) has asked the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur to take up geo-physical survey of the Tangarapada chrome ore mines.

It will submit the prospecting report by March 2010 after which the Corporation will finalise the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state run Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) to form a joint venture (JV). OMC has already submitted the draft MoU to Idcol, sources said.

“We have asked IIT, Kharagpur to do the prospecting of the Tangarapada mines after which we will be in position to finalise the MoU with OMC”, a senior official of Idcol told Business Standard.

After its failed bid to rope in a private partner to develop Tangarapada chrome ore mines, the Orissa government had decided to take up the prospecting of this mine itself to assess the available reserves there.

The directorate of geology was entrusted to start geo-chemical mapping and geo-physical survey of Tangarapada mines.

As part of its assignment, the directorate took up close space mapping of the ore body in the first stage. Meanwhile, the geo-chemical survey sampling is over and computation report is expected within a month.

After the IIT-Kharagpur, report is obtained it will be super imposed on the survey report of the Directorate of Geology to find out the areas where there is concentration of chrome ore to take up drilling.

Based on the resource estimation, Idcol will initiate steps for obtaining the forest and environment clearance from the Union government for the proposed venture.

It may be noted, Idcol was granted lease (ML) of the Tangarapada chrome mines in1986. However, the ML could not be executed as Idcol was not able to submit the mining and de-reservation plan to the government.

Though the state government had asked Idcol to submit the mining and de-reservation plan to the steel and mines department by 11 September 2009 for execution of the mining lease, it has been extended further to complete the prospecting process, sources added.