 "Sandur Manganese suspends mining operations")
“The company had mining leases granted under the provisions of the Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act) for 20 years effective from January 1, 1994, and the same expired on December 31, 2013,” the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
“In compliance with the provisions of Rule 24A (1) of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 (MC Rules) the company had applied for its renewal more than 12 months prior to its expiry and accordingly the company is entitled to continue its operations under the deemed renewal provisions prescribed under Rule 24(A)(6) of the MC Rules,” the filing said.
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However, without taking cognisance of the aforesaid deemed renewal provisions, the Forest Department has directed suspension of mining operations from January 1, 2014, the statement added.
Accordingly, the company has suspended all activities in its mining leases. The company is pursuing with the state government renewal of the lease and resumption of mining operations, the company said.
“Our lease expired on December 31, 2013. However, we had applied for renewal as per the rules of MMDR Act one year in advance,” a senior company official said.
“The director of mines and geology, government of Karnataka, had even acknowledged our application in the prescribed form. As there was no communication from the department nor our application for renewal was rejected, we are eligible to continue mining. But, the department of forests has asked us to stop mining,” the official said.
He said, the company is deemed to have got the permission to start mining as the forest clearance and IBM (Indian Bureau of Mines) approvals are in place.
“It is a matter of few days that we will get the communication from the forest department and we hope to restart mining very soon,” he added.
The company’s first mining lease was signed in 1954 for a period of 20 years and the first renewal was granted from January 1, 1974, to December 31, 1993.
Subsequently, the second renewal was granted with effect from January 1, 1994, to December 31, 2013.
However, the company got the forest clearance in 2007 and it continues to hold it till 2027.
The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court has fixed the mining capacity of SMIORE at 740,000 tonnes per annum as against the original sanctioned capacity of 1.6 million tonnes per annum following the approval of its reclamation and rehabilitation plan.
Its manganese production capacity is fixed at 180,000 tonnes per annum from 600,000 tonnes per annum sanctioned capacity.
The mining lease falls under the Category A mines.
The ML (No. 2581) is located about 22 km from Sandur town in Bellary district.
For the year 2013-14, SMIORE has produced about 500,000 tonnes of iron ore and 50,000 tonnes of manganese ore and sold through E-auctions.
The company expects to record a turnover of Rs 250-300 crore for FY 2014.
The stock of Sandur Manganese dropped by a sharp 5.64 per cent to close at Rs 586.40 per share on BSE on Thursday and on Friday it fell another 2.20 per cent to end the day at 573.50.