State to reserve mineral bearing areas for OMC

Responding to the demand from various quarters, the state government has decided to reserve areas bearing iron ore, manganese ore, chromite ore and bauxite for undertaking prospecting and mining operations through Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), the state controlled miner.

The government would invoke Section 17 A (2) of Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act-1957 for reservation of mine bearing areas. This would exclude the areas already held under any prospecting license (PL) or mining lease (ML) or areas reserved by the Central government under Section 17 A (1A) of the Act for any Central PSU.

OMC would make a fair and equitable distribution of minerals amongst the user industries for higher value addition in the state through appropriate long-term arrangements based on their requirements.

The Director (mines) and director (geology) would furnish land particulars with boundaries in such areas for issuing notification in the official gazette.

The state government would also move the Government of India for appropriate approval for this reservation as required under sub-section 2 of Section 17 (A) of MMDR Act.

The reservation of mineral bearing areas in favour of OMC is being planned to ensure value addition and maximise benefit for the local communities from extraction of minerals. The state government is emphasizing on value addition as it is expected to create employment opportunities, generate revenues and facilitate setting up of ancillary and downstream industries. Besides, with many operational end-use industries grappling with raw material scarcity, the reservation of mineral bearing areas for OMC is expected to enable the state run miner to cater to their requirement.

It may be noted that the expert committee constituted by the state government to broad base revenue had recommended leasing out of all mines containing iron ore, chrome ore, manganese and bauxite in favour of OMC. OMC, in turn, would supply the required quantum of raw materials to various industry, the expert panel suggested in its report.