The state-owned iron ore mining company, KIOCL Limited, has sought the government of India approval to approach the Supreme Court once again for permission for carrying out limited mining in its abandoned mines in Kudremukh in the the eco-sensitive Western Ghats.
KIOCL estimates the broken ore to be in the range of 24 million tonnes and worth over Rs 2,500 crore as per the present market rates. This would be sufficient for the company to run its pellet plant for three years.
The company, which is starved of iron ore for its pellet plant, plans to take out weathered ore in the already broken up areas and convert it into pellets. In 2005, the Supreme Court had ordered the company to close down its mines in Kudremukh on environmental grounds.
“Before closing our mining operations in Kudremukh from January 1, 2005, we had blasted some portions of the mine, which is lying in lose form. This ore needs to be removed from the area, otherwise it may cause greater damage to the ecosystem of Western Ghats and the nearby Bhadra river, at any time. It’s high time the matter is addressed,” K Ranganath, chairman and managing director, KIOCL Limited told Business Standard.
He said the company’s request has already been cleared by the steel ministry and forwarded to the law ministry for clearance. “The law ministry has already held a discussion in this regard and sent our application to the Solicitor General of India for his opinion. Once the law ministry gives its approval, we will approach the Supreme Court with an appeal for approval to removed the weathered ore,” he said.
In addition to this, the company is also planning to extract iron ore tailings (waste material) dumped at the Lakya Dam in Kudremukh. Here, KIOCL has dumped close to 200 tonnes of tailings in the last three decades. “The iron content in the tailings is in the range of 25 per cent and we can extract close to 50 million tonnes of ore from this dam. After separating iron ore from the tailings, we can use the remaining slurry for making bricks and tiles,” he said.
The company is also approaching the state government to give permission to desilt the Lakya Dam as it falls in the forest region. Once the Lakya Dam is desilted, its water storage capacity will increase and the water could be used for supplying water to parts of Mangalore city, which faces scarcity of water during the summer months, he said.
Presently, KIOCL spends close to Rs 60 crore per annum to maintain the ball mill equipment and concentrator plant in working condition. The value of this equipment is about Rs 500 crore. It is also maintaining 430 employees who could be put into the mining operations at any time, Ranganath added.
