The Odisha government which has decided to go for electronic sale of key minerals like iron ore, chrome ore and manganese is awaiting the directive of the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to enforce e-auction on mine owners.

"Unless we get a directive from the CEC, we cannot make e-auction mandatory on all lessees. There is a possibility that a lessee may initially agree to participate in e-auction and back out later. We had discussions with the CEC and they have responded positively to our move for introducing e-auction," a top official source told Business Standard.

About 50 mines, out of 186 iron and manganese ore mines in the state, are now operating with many miners halting their operation due to lack of statutory clearances

The Supreme Court judgment for cancellation of 49 iron ore leases in Karnataka on charges of rule violations may not have any bearing on fate of Odisha mines, also in dock for several rule violation, as the nature of crimes are different, said a state government official.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today cancelled 49 leases in mines reporting maximum illegalities in Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga districts of Karnataka, but allowed resumption of activity in mines

Category B mines allowed to resume mining subject to necessary clearances

The forest bench of the Supreme Court has accepted all the reports submitted periodically by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) regarding the mining in Karnataka. As per the CEC reports, Category B mines will be allowed to restart mining subject to necessary statutory clearances. Already, the apex court has approved 18 Category A mines, of which 7 mines have started mining.

The environment ministry is likely to decide on a second set of key changes in green norms meant for SEZs, roads and the real estate sector, especially multi-storey buildings, next week.

Feels State does not need second airport

PANJIM: “Today every Goan is worth Rs one lakh crore, considering the fact that State approximately has two billion tones of iron ore reserves as quoted by Chief Minister,” said Rajendra Kakodkar, a anti mining activist, who has been voicing about the need of sharing the benefits of mining with the people of the state.

Target missed by 6.5%, however it was raised by 16.71% over 2011-12

The Odisha government has missed its mining revenue target for 2012-13 by 6.5 per cent though it is higher by 16.71 per cent over 2011-12.
Mining revenue, the single biggest contributor to the state's non-tax revenue segment stood at Rs 5352.94 crore in 2012-13 as against a target of Rs 5700 crore. In 2011-12, the mining revenue collection was Rs 4586.64 crore.

PANJIM: State has approximately two billion tonnes of iron ore reserves, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the State Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, and assured that he would carry out an estimate of the exact quantity of ore lying in all mining leases in Goa.

Justifying the government’s decision to impose stamp duty on renewal of mining lease, Parrikar said that ‘government is trying to recover the amount lost by the State in form of lease amount, dumps, etc over the years. He, however, clarified that signing of lease agreement does not allow any firm to carry out mining, unless it has all required documents.

PANJIM: The State government will attach and auction mining dumps and is just waiting for a go-ahead from the Supreme Court to get into the act, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Assembly on Tuesday.

He added that he expected mining to commence by next season, and that the apex court matter should be resolved by May. “Next season we should be able to start mining, it should be resolved by the Supreme Court by May,” Parrikar said.

IPPAI Conference,April 10 - Ancillary Services, New Technology and Alternate options

Moves afoot to form task force under the Revenue Department. The Industries Department is understood to have mooted a proposal for constituting a task force under the Mining and Geology Department to check the exploitation and transportation of metals and minerals.