Two Category A mines restart iron ore mining in K'taka

Third likely to restart production next week, bringing about 1.5 million tonne of iron ore to the auction platform

Iron ore mining has restarted in Karnataka’s Bellary and Chitradurga districts, one year after it was suspended following the Supreme Court direction. Two mining leases in Category A, which have secured all statutory approvals, have started mining, giving hopes of regular supply of iron ore to the ore-starved steel industry. 

According to Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) officials, two mining leases – R Praveen Chandra in Chitradurga and B Kumar Gowda in Bellary districts have commenced mining. Nadeem Minerals, which has its mine in Bellary, is likely to restart mining next week. These mines together would bring about 1.5 million tonne of iron ore to the auction platform in about two weeks’ time.

In addition to these, another lease – VESCO - is likely to secure necessary approvals to commence mining in the next one week, FIMI officials said.

On September 3, 2012, the Apex Court cleared 18 Category A mines to restart mining.

Mineral Enterprises Ltd, which was the first mining company to secure all clearances, operated its mine in Chitradurga for one month and produced about 35,000 tonne before shutting down operations as its mining lease expired on October 6, 2012.

Mining had stopped in Karnataka in July 2011 after the Apex Court ordered for suspension after the investigation by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) found rampant illegalities by several mining companies. However, the Court had allowed e-auction of about 25 million tonne of iron ore from the stockpile to help the steel industry tide over the crisis.

Based on the CEC report, the Supreme Court, in its order on September 2, 2011 permitted monthly auctions of 1.5 million tonne of iron ore from stockpiles in the state. It had allowed public sector mining giant NMDC Ltd to carry out mining at its mines in Bellary district and extract up to one million tonne per month.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court had ordered for setting up of a three member monitoring committee comprising Deepak Sharma, Additional principal chief conservator of forests, H R Srinivasa, director, department of mines and geology and U V Singh, chief conservator of forests to supervise the e-auctions.

The Court also appointed public sector MSTC to conduct the auction. Since the first auction held in September 2011, about 33 million tonne of ore has been auctioned and sold to steel companies in Karnataka that include JSW Steel, BMM Ispat, Kalyani Steels and Kirloskar Ferrous Industries among others. This includes ore from NMDC, which was allowed to conduct mining.

Around 14 million tonne of iron ore from Bellary, seven million tonne from Chitradurga and 4 million tonne from Tumkur districts were put on auction. The buyers of iron ore, however, were restricted from exporting the iron ore as directed by the Supreme Court.