Goa govt directs mine owners to stop extraction from March 13

Complying with the Supreme Court order, the Goa government has issued a set of guidelines for its staff and mine owners asking them to wrap up the iron ore extraction activity.
The government has asked mining lessees to stop ore extraction activity from March 13 onwards while lease-holders are directed to move out all the movable machinery by March 15.
The apex court last month quashed the second renewal of iron ore mining leases given to 88 companies in Goa in 2015. The SC also granted time till March 15 to mining lease holders, who have been granted a second renewal in violation of its previous directions, to manage their affairs.

State Mines and Geology department has issued a series of guidelines to its staff and the mine owners.
As per the directions, made public today, the department has formed four teams for inspection of working and non-working mining leases.
The process to identify and gather data of the ore stacked in various mining leases began today at various properties.

"The details of such stacks shall be collected to know whether they are fresh extracted mineral, e-auction cargo, or old dumps," the department said.
As per the guidelines, the teams shall inspect non-working mines from tomorrow onwards and daily reports of working and non-working leases shall be properly documented.

This is in addition to daily monitoring and regulation of production, dispatch, transportation and trade of ore undertaken separately.
The mining lessees are asked to stop extraction of ore at 6 PM on March 13 onwards.
"Only the ore which has paid royalty can be transported from the stock yards, jetties, or processing plants after March 14 onwards. To avoid any illegal mining, the department has said that the lease-holders should move out all the movable machinery by 1 PM on March 15," the department said.
A team comprising officials of the Goa Mines department, Indian Bureau of Mines, Directorate of Mines Safety, State Forest department, Union Environment Ministry, and the Goa State Pollution Control Board will inspect the leases from March 15 onwards.

Mining industry is a prominent economic activity and the major source of revenue for the coastal state.
In the wake of the SC order, the state government has estimated the loss of Rs 3,500 crore in revenue and loss of employment for two lakh people due to closure of mining activity.