The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has informed the Madras High Court that it was no longer required to issue licence for mining of titanium-bearing minerals by beach sand mining (BSM) firms as the rare minerals had been delisted from the prescribed substances list in 2007.
This was stated in a counter-affidavit filed by DAE under-secretary T G Ravindran in response to a suo motu PIL taken up by the court relating to alleged illegal mining of BSM in some southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
The counter-affidavit refuted the allegations by Amicus Curie V Suresh that the Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) had failed to stop several players from carrying out the mining operations beyond the permitted quantities.
It said that in 2007, the DAE decided to delist titanium- bearing minerals and zircon from the prescribed substance list to encourage effective utilisation of these valuable minerals and their value addition.
As a consequence, these facilities no longer required licence from the DAE, the counter-affidavit submitted, indicating that it cannot be blamed for any illegal mining of BSM.
Referring to the allegation of non-applicability of relevant rules on firms involved in mining of atomic minerals, it said only a few facilities were producing minerals such as ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon and sillimanite.
These generate relatively less quantities of monazite enriched tailings and the monazite content was generally between 10 per cent and 25 per cent.
As per the Atomic Energy (Radiation Protection) Rules 2004, these facilities were required to keep the monazite- enriched tailings after removal of heavy minerals in trenches within their premises and to top them with silica-rich tailings so as to ensure that background radiation level did not increase.
The counter-affidavit submitted that it was not fair on the part of the amicus curie to accuse the AMD of failure to stop the mining operations of the firms which were carrying out the mining allegedly beyond permitted quantity.
Rejecting the charge that the DAE had issued handling licence to VV Minerals to mine ilmenite for which it did not have mining lease, it said the state government can issue permits for mining to them only after the grant of valid mining lease and ensuring that all statutory clearances were obtained by them.
The grant of handling licence itself cannot be cited for issuing permits on the basis of the handling licence, the counter said.
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