Goa has temporarily suspended all mining activities, effective Tuesday, after an expert panel formed by the central government found “serious illegalities and irregularities” in mining operations, the state government said in a statement late on Monday.
Goa has not banned movement of iron ore already produced and stored at ports or in transit, the statement said. The state will form a verification and clearance committee to scrutinize operations before giving approval to resume mining.
Goa has 90 operational mines of the existing 337 mining leases. The notification suspending the mining operations, signed by principal secretary (mines) R K Verma on Monday evening, has come as a jolt to the big names of mining such as Vedanta-owned Sesa Goa, VM Salgaocar & Bro owned by Dattaraj and Shivanand Salgaocar, Salgaocar Mining Industries owned by former MLA Anil Salgaocar, Fomentos owned by Audhoot Timblo, Bandekar Mines owned by Narayan Bandekar, Damodar Mangalji & Company and Chowgule Mining Private Limited among others.
The halting of mining operations may not have any major impact immediately since most mines are not currently operating in view of the monsoon.
Goa is India's second-biggest iron ore producer. It produces more than 50 million tonnes of iron ore annually and exports almost all of it, making it the top exporter. Sesa Goa Ltd, an Indian unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc, gets most of its iron ore from mines based in Goa.
The mining-suspension order came a week after the Supreme Court partially allowed mining in the neighboring Karnataka following a ban of more than a year.
India used to be the world's No. 3 iron ore exporter, with most of its product heading to China. But a clampdown on illegal mining in 2010, and New Delhi's measures to keep output for domestic steel mills, slashed exports in half.
Reuters
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