Centre aims at import substitution for all major minerals

This is in sync with the steel production in the country rising by 8.5% during the April-September period at 7.8%

In line with the coal ministry's move to increase domestic coal production aiming for import substitution, the union mining ministry is also aiming for the same and results have started reflecting on the iron ore production and sales trend this fiscal year.

Compared to the production of 66.85 million tonne (mt) of iron ore in the first half of the last fiscal year, India surpassed the previous year's production by 18.15 mt or 25.85 per cent in the April-September period this year.

"So far, we have clocked a production of 84 mt and aim to substitute import of all critical metals which are found in India", Balvinder Kumar, secretary at the union ministry of mines said here.

As per Kumar, compared to the 7.09 mt import of iron ore in the last fiscal year, India imported only 1.59 mt of the ore in the April-August period.

The aim of import substitution is in sync with the steel production in the country rising by 8.5 per cent during the April-September period at 7.8 per cent.

However, India is also keen to increase its exports as well after catering to the domestic demand.

During April-August this year, the total iron ore ore exports stood at 7.5 mt as against 5.45 mt export in the entire period of the last fiscal year.

The bulk of the exports are shipped towards China where, as per the Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodity Forecasts, a total of 82.5 mt of iron ore arrive at the country's ports in September- up by 2.5 per cent.

The government is also upping it's surveillance mechanism for the mines and is using geo reference technology.

Across 2,000 major mineral mines, the government is putting in place the technology which can be monitored through satellite and IT.

Any thefts in the mining area can be reported through an app which will send the report to the concerned authorities which can be probed.

The centre is also asking the state governments to deploy the same technology in the minor mineral mines.

The centre has also decided to study the impact on the downstream aluminium sector before it goes ahead with any sort of duty protection for the primary aluminium makers.

"We have asked Mecon to also study the downstream sector for aluminium as they might get affected with rise in duty. They (mecon) have suggested imposition of Minimum Import Price on imported aluminum," Kumar said.

As per the official, Mecon is supposed to submit the impact report on secondary and downstream alumunium industry in a month's time and then government will take a final call.