OMC among four firms to mine beyond IBM-approved plan

Excess production of 44 lakh tonne iron ore worth Rs 954 crore

Four mining firms including the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) operating in the Joda-Barbil belt of the Keonjhar mining circle have been mining beyond the capacity approved by the Mining Plan of the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM).

The production of these mining firms has been in excess of the IBM approved Mining Plan since 2002-03.

Apart from OMC, other private miners like GSI Pvt Ltd, Narayani Sons and B D Agarwal have been undertaking mining operations in blatant violation of the IBM norms.

The overall excess production from these four firms has been worked out to be around 44 lakh tonnes from 2002-03 till the end of 2009-10 and the market value of this excess production stands at about Rs 954 crore.

According to the figures provided by the state steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty, OMC produced 2.74 lakh tonnes of iron ore in 2002-03 from the Gandhanmardhan block-B as against an approved capacity of 2.01 lakh tonnes. This mineral block is spread over 1590.86 hectares.

In 2003-04, the production from the same block was 4.13 lakh tonnes compared to the IBM approved capacity of 2.5 lakh tonnes. OMC also exceeded the approved production targets from this block in 2004-05 and 2007-08 while it fell short of the targeted production in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2009-10.The excess production from this OMC block from 2002-03 to 2009-10 stands at 4.4 lakh tonnes.Similarly, for the Gandhamardhan Block-A, also belonging to OMC, the excess production during the said period has been worked out to be 2.19 lakh tonnes. OMC exceeded the production targets from this block in 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09.

GSI Pvt Ltd which operates the Puthlpani Iron Ore mines in the circle, has reported an excess production of 9.23 lakh tonnes from 2002-03 to 2009-10.

Similarly, Narayani Sons operating the Laupada iron ore mines in the circle, had a production of 1.49 lakh tonnes in excess of the IBM approved mining plan. B D Agarwal's Urumund iron ore mines had an excess production of 97,250 tonnes in the said period.