NMDC, India’s largest iron ore mining company, has slowed dispatches from its Bacheli and Kirandul mining complexes in Chhattisgarh state since 12 June.
The state government served notices on NMDC claiming it was storing material off site before dispatching these in wagons.
“It is our understanding that the mining area includes loading facilities too,” said an NMDC official.
NMDC expects to resolve the storage issue this week and resume normal dispatches. Currently it is dispatching ore through its slurry pipeline as well as directly loading material onto wagons without storing them. Dispatches have been lower by around 20,000t/day since 12 June.
“We have not slowed mining activities since our stockpile at the mines are depleted so we are building some stocks,” the official added.
Chhattisgarh and NMDC had previously disputed about mining activities, with the state government suspending development of the greenfield Deposit 13 mine in July 2019 after protests by tribals claiming the mining site of Dantewada hills as sacred. But the state government renewed four mining leases of NMDC’s existing Chhattisgarh mines in 2019 signaling a thaw in relations.
NMDC has also been unable to restart mining at its Donimalai iron ore mine in Karnataka where a royalty dispute halted mining in 2018.
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