Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), State Based Iron Ore Miner has received Stage-1 Clearance for its Daitari Iron Ore Mines located in Keonjhar district

Bhubaneswar: After stuck for several months at the Ministry of Enviornment & Forests (MoEF), OMC’s application for grant of forest clearance to its Daitari Iron ore mines has been cleared. According to sources the Daitari mines has been accorded stage-1 forest clearance by the Ministry recently.

After taking charge last December, the new Environment &Forest Minister M.Birappa Moilly has expedited the clearance process of several important projects awaiting Environment & forest clearance including the high profile POSCO project.

With 50 MnT deposits of proven Iron ore reserve, the Daitari mine at Talipada village under Keonjhar & Jajpur districts is among OMC’s important Iron ore mines. In 2011, the local Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) sought an explanation from the state-run miner over use of reserve forest land for mining, infrastructure and ore transportation without forest clearance, in stark violation of the Odisha Forest Act, 1972 and Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

After the objection by DFO, OMC had undertaken partial production due to lack of storage area. In FY13, the Daitari mines produced only 703,440 MT of Iron ore, less than its usual production of 2 MnT pa. After the grant of stage-1 forest clearance, OMC has to wait for the stage-2 or final forest clearance. After that output from the mines would be raised to 3 MnT pa, as per OMC plans.

An application send by OMC to divert the adjacent forest land, finally reached the MoEF, four months back with the recommendation of the state government and the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC). However, according to sources, the former MoEF Minister, Jayanthi Natarajan was sitting over the clearance proposal for the last four months even after the EAC had given its mandate in favour of OMC.

Production enhancement at the Daitari is crucial as many units such as Visa Steel, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL), Aarti Steels and Bhushan Steel depend on Iron ore supplies from the site.