Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today told the Legislative Assembly that the state has reserves of two billion tonnes of iron ore, which is yet to be tapped.
Parrikar told the House that there are two billion tonnes of iron ore reserves in the state, while Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has estimated the ore to be 1.2 billion tones.
The Chief Minister was responding to a question raised by independent MLA Vijay Sardesai, who sought details of the mining leases in the state.
Sardesai had also asked about the value of mineral assets underlying in each of the leases.
Parrikar said that the value of mineral assets below the mining leases cannot be quantified as rates of mineral depends on the market forces, which keep changing from time to time as also the quantity cannot be calculated, but can only be estimated.
When Sardesai sought to know the exact value as per the existing rates, the chief minister assured to place the details about the value on the table of the House soon.
Goa had exported 38.25 million tones of iron ore in the year 2011-12.
The official figures tabled on the floor of the house reveals that the export was 51.17 million metric tones in the year 2010-11, 47.02 MMT in 2009-10, 38.78 MMT in 2008-09 and 39.79 MMT in the year 2007-08.
