The ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) has turned down ministry of mines

Press Trust Of India / New Delhi October 15, 2008, 0:40 IST
To introduce a Bill in the coming session.

The Centre plans to introduce competitive bidding for allocation of coal blocks, a move that will benefit consuming industries like power and steel.

Editor: Bruce Meng

NEW DELHI, Oct 14 - India's new mining policy, moving with glacial speed towards implementation, may be too little too late to attract much foreign investment as the commodities boom fades and interest in minerals wanes.

Ruhi Kandhari NEW DELHI

Policing body finds 173 out of 199 mines violating rules
Ruhi Kandhari NEW DELHI

IN A shocking report that exposes flouting of environmental and social regulations by mining companies, Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has found that 173 out of 199 mines inspected in August were violating rules.

Most of the violations of the Mineral Conservation and Development Rules (MCDR) under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act were due to noncompliance of mining plan.

BY VENKAT PARSA
NEW DELHI

A transparent mines regulatory regime is on the cards. The Union mines ministry plans to develop a Mining Tenement System, which will help in creating a transparent regulatory regime for prospecting and mining licences in collaboration with the state governments. Several states are already experimenting with similar systems and a sharing of experience as well as data will be in the overall interest of the mineral sector.

Shimla, July 27 After 17 years, one of the state's biggest mining projects is back on track. The National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) last week got government approval for its proposal to extract and sell steel-grade limestone from deposits in Arki
of Solan district.

A Government of India navratna PSU, NMDC had first struck a deal with the state government to mine limestone from Arki in 1991, but when its tie-ups with steel manufacturing units like SAIL did not work out because of economics of transporting limestone to steel factories down south, the project was shelved.

Paderu (Visakhapatnam), July 14: The minister for commercial taxes, Mr Konatala Ramakrishna, said the bauxite mining would be taken up in the Agency soon after all the approvals were given by various departments of the Central government. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mr Ramakrishna said the clearance was in the preliminary stages and being speeded up by the State government.

Country's mining industry is projected to touch over $30 billion (about Rs 1,27,662 crore) accounting for about 2.5% of the GDP in the next four years, a latest report said. "Considering India's mineral resources, we believe there is strong potential for further development and scaling up of the country's mining industry.

New Delhi: The black diamond industry is in for a bigticket reform, with the government gearing up to usher in an open-bidding regime and set up a regulator in six months or so to open up coal mining to private players without the restriction of captive use.