No mining in Niyamgiri Hills without 100% nod: Vedanta

Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal today said the group will "abide by law" and will only start mining bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa after securing clearances from the Centre.

"We are law-abiding people. We will not start mining at all until and unless we get 100 per cent clearance from the authorities concerned," Agarwal told PTI in an interview. The group has proposed an estimated Rs 50,000 crore investment in the state.

The statement follows a government panel's report to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh disfavouring the grant of permission to the private company to mine bauxite in the region.

"We have to keep patience in India... We are cooperating 100 per cent in all their (government) queries," Agarwal said.

In its report to Ramesh, the four-member N C Saxena Committee said, "This committee is of the firm view that allowing mining in the proposed mining lease (PML) area by depriving two primitive tribal groups of their rights... In order to benefit a private company would shake the faith of the tribals in the law of the land."

The committee was constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to study the impact of the project on the local population. The proposed mining project awaits final clearance from the Environment Ministry.

Ramesh, after receiving the report, told reporters here that a final decision on the matter will be taken after the Forest Advisory Council (FAC) takes a view on the committee's findings on August 20.

The Vedanta Group firm has entered into an agreement with state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation for mining bauxite in Niyamgiri hills, which is venerable to the local tribal population. As per the agreement, OMC will mine bauxite and give it to the Vedanta Group firm for feeding its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, which is being expanded at a cost of about Rs 6,000 crore.

In 2008, a green bench of the Supreme Court had given a conditional nod for Vedanta's mining project in the forest- rich belt of Orissa, which is inhabited by the endangered Dongria Kondh tribe.