Mineral Enterprises, the only company to secure all clearances, suspends ops

Bangalore-based Mineral Enterprises Limited (MEL) has suspended mining operations at its iron ore mine in Chitradurga district after its lease period expired on October 6. The company has managed to produce 35,000 tonnes in one month. MEL was the first company to get all the statutory clearances to restart mining in Karnataka. With the suspension of mining by MEL, the mining has once again come to a standstill in Karnataka as 11 other mines in the Category A are yet to secure all statutory approvals.

The Orissa government which faces the allegation of large-scale irregularities in mining operations, has sparked off yet another controversy by bringing out an “ambiguous” resolution to regulate the sector.

The resolution is viewed by mining experts as a “hurried” move to give an impression to the visiting Shah Commission that it is serious to check illegal mining.

JAIPUR: The recommendation of the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to increase safety zones (eco-sensitive zones) around wildlife sanctuaries and national parks from 100 meters to 2 km from the park's boundary has not come as a shock. Given the current scenario, this would not make any difference.

The note, prepared by CEC member secretary M K Jiwrajka, and submitted to the SC, has categorized Protected Areas (PAs) in four groups and the safety zone to be notified thereon. It suggests that parks above 500 sq km will be under Category-A and its safety zone will be 2 km from boundary. Similarly, for Category-B (between 200 sq km & 500 sq km) the safety zone may be 1km from boundary.

The ongoing enquiry into illegal mining in Odisha by the members of Shah Commission may get an extension due to huge pile of files and some complexity detected in the mining lease papers.

So far, the commission has checked files of only 32 mining leases, out of the list of 142 leases it had submitted to the government. With the remaining period of their visit, which ends on October 11, it is impossible to verify the documents related to rest of the mines.

Goa followed Karnataka on Friday when the Supreme Court imposed a complete ban on the mining activities as well as transportation of iron and manganese ore in the state till further orders.

The Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) on Friday assailed the action of former Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in cancelling the approval granted to the state-owned company for bauxite mining

Mining operations in all the 90 mines in Goa were on Friday ordered to be halted by the Supreme Court on the basis of the Justice M.B. Shah Commission report which estimated a whopping Rs.35,000 crore to the exchequer due to illegal mining in the last 12 years.

Mining companies have also been restrained from exporting and selling ores which has already been extracted. A three judge bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam took note of the Commission’s report and issued notice to the Centre and State government.

The CBI probe into coal blocks allotment between 1993 and 2004 has zeroed in on the period around 2003 as it has found that the highest number of allotments were made in that year when the NDA gove

Shah Commission had said the iron ore scam could have caused a loss of . 35,000 cr to exchequer.

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered iron ore mining in six leases in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district to be stopped due to a pending inter-state border survey.

The court’s forest bench, which is hearing cases on illegal mining, said mining operations and transportation of ore from the six leases should be suspended till further orders.