NMDC to resume diamond mining at Panna in 3 months: Steel Min

NMDC, the country's largest iron ore producer, is set to restart mining at the Panna diamond reserves in Madhya Pradesh in the next three months with the Supreme Court giving conditional nod to such activities at the site.     

"... Directions of the Supreme Court have been obtained recently, paving the way for reopening of these mines," Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh said referring to the apex court's order.     

The Supreme Court asked NMDC to pay Rs 10.69 crore as net present value (NPV) to the Madhya Pradesh government for reopening the Asia's only mechanised diamond mine.     

Unable to obtain environment clearance and nod from the adjoining wildlife sanctuary, the Panna diamond mines was shut in 2005.     

The resumption of the mining operations is expected to make the miner corner huge margin. In 2001-02, the mine had an annual production capacity of 1 lakh carats.     

The excavation activities at Panna reserves were a source of employment to about 250 people. The resumption of diamond mining is likely to create more jobs in the region.     

"This will not only result in additional revenue for NMDC, but will also provide direct as well indirect employment to a number of people around the project site," Singh said last evening, while outlining the ministry's 20-point agenda for the next 100 days. The steel ministry will give priority to the completion of Rs 70,000-crore expansion projects of steel PSUs like SAIL, RINL and NMDC, among other things, in its 100-day agenda.     

Apart from expanding its mining capacity, NMDC is in the process of setting up Rs 16,000 crore steel unit in Chhattisgarh with an annual production capacity to produce three million tonnes of the commodity.     

The domestic steel industry is undertaking massive capacity expansion which will take up the country's annual production capacity to 124 million tonnes by 2011-12.     

State-run NMDC had reported a marginal increase in net profit at Rs 1,021.19 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009.     

The mining firm had a net profit of Rs 1,016.97 crore in the March quarter of FY'08.