State-owned miner NMDC is planning to set up a beneficiation facility to convert the huge low grade dumps at Donimalai mine in Karnataka into high grade iron ore. The project, to come up in the next 24-30 months, will involve an investment of Rs 150 crore
Speaking on the sidelines of a mining workshop here today, chairman and managing director Rana Som said the company did not want to let the iron ore content of this leftover portion go waste. With the proposed facility, it would be able to remove the excess silica content from the dump and covert it into 64 per cent Fe grade ore (high grade). NMDC uses the production in Donimalai mine, which commenced operations in 1977, to export iron ore to Japan and Korea.
Earlier addressing the workshop on the theme 'maximising value of resources', Som said selective mining was a criminal practice as iron ore was a scarce resource that needed to be preserved and utilised rationally.
Public sector Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) chairman and managing director Narsing Rao said the present 2 per cent growth in coal production in India was not adequate to serve the economy that is growing at 8-9 per cent annually.
Apart from bringing technologies to optimise production, companies should also think of adopting best practices from outside the country so that the process of developing new mines in terms of land acquisition, rehabilitation and settlement, and restoration of environment takes place at a much faster pace, he said.
