As per the Supreme Court direction regarding the resumption of 18 Category- A mines in three districts, Mineral Enterprises Limited in Chitradurga has commenced mining activities after obtaining all the statutory clearances.
Eleven mines require six months to get clearance to resume mining operations. However, plant owners do not seem happy about the court order as it did not serve the purpose of the required quantity of quality grade iron ore.
The total requirement of various plants in Bellary is 25 million tonnes per annum but in the Reclamation and Rehabilitation Plan, it was recommended for Category- A mines to extract 10.30 million tonnes annually, including 3 Category-B mines.
Out of the 18 Category-A mines, five are not eligible for restarting because the cases are pending before the Supreme Court.
Sri Allum Prashanth has not applied for statutory approval for restarting mining. In the Category-A mines, some mine leases will expire in two to three years and the MEL Mines’ lease will expire on October 6, plant owners said.
For the renewal of the lease, applications should be submitted one year ahead, the plant owners said. Some mines have applied for the renewal of the lease but the Department of Forest, Mines and Geology have not started the process, even of those who applied in 2009, said a mine owner.
The iron ore available through e-auction is not qualitative. Due to the scarcity of quality grade ore, some plants in the district have reduced its production marginally, said a plant owner.
Currently, only three mines - two NMDC mines in Sandur taluk and MEL in Chitradurga - are extracting ore but below the required quantity.
Plant owners are hoping of resumption of Category-B mines to ease them of the difficulty of getting good grade ore.
However, NCPNR founder president S R Hiremath says it is the illegal mining menace that is making it difficult to find ore.
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