A meeting of the nine-member ministerial panel set up to frame the powers of the proposed regulator for the coal sector remained inconclusive today.

However, a general consensus emerged on the contentious issue of assigning pricing power to the proposed authority. This, if implemented, would deprive state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL), the near-monopoly producer, of the freedom it currently enjoys in fixing and revising prices of its output. “Views of different ministries were heard on the draft Bill on constitution of the coal regulatory authority in today’s meeting. There were no objections from any quarter on the pricing issue,” a senior official told Business Standard.

The Society of Geoscientists and Allied Technologists (SGAT) has vehemently opposed Union tribal welfare minister V Kishore Chandra Deo’s demand for stoppage of bauxite mining in Eastern Ghats.

“We strongly refute observations of the Union tribal welfare minister as these are not based on facts,” said B K Mohanty, advisor, SGAT, a non-profit making professional body dedicated to promotion of mineral development.

Ministry in process of amending rules. Guilty party to lose licence, debarred from obtaining any further licence

PANJIM: As a major fallout of Shah Commission’s interim report, Union Mines ministry is working on amending the Mineral Concession Rules which will make mine owner lose his licence and would be debarred from obtaining any further licence, if he is found guilty of involving in illegal mining activity. Justice M B Shah Commission, during its first interim report had suggested this stringent measure to curb the illegal mining, which was accepted by the union mines ministry.

Three lessees charged with violation of Rule-37 of Mineral Concession Rules-1960 – Indrani Patnaik, KJS Ahluwalia and R P Sao- have filed petitions in the revision authority under Union ministry of mines, dealing a blow to the ongoing investigation by the state steel & mines department.

Indrani Patnaik has even got an interim order from the revision authority barring the state government from passing any final order in case of Rule-37 violation before the lessee’s revision application is disposed off by the authority. The state government, however, has been allowed to carry on hearing in the case, said a steel & mines department official.

Steamrolling the concerns raised by mining firms, the mines ministry has told a Parliamentary committee that people displaced from their homes in mining zones have to be allotted shares of the mine

PANJIM: The Union Mines Ministry has asked Goa government to ensure that there is no environmental degradation while allowing the dumps to be handled for exports.

The ministry has also stipulated that any dump handling would be done only after ‘quantification of grade and quantity of ore’ in the heaps of mining rejects piled across the state.

The mines ministry has told a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal and Steel that it is imperative to compensate the project affect persons (PAP) in the mining zones by allotting them shares in

The country's steel production capacity has reached 80 MT per annum with plans to ramp it up to 120 MTPA during the current fiscal

An inter-ministerial panel will meet later this month to sort out issues impeding big-ticket investments in the steel sector. "An inter-ministerial group (IMG) on July 25 would review the current status of major steel investment projects and find out solutions to problems impacting them," a Steel Ministry official said. The group will have participation from ministries of steel, coal, mines, environment, railways and shipping among others.

The Odisha government has refused to abide by a clause of the Mineral Concession Rule (MCR), 1960, dealing with royalty charges on minerals, citing certain flaws in it.

According to Rule 64 B, sub-rule (1) of the MCR Rule 1960, the states can charge royalty on the minerals that has been processed within the leasehold area of a particular mine. But the Odisha government wants to collect royalty on the basis of mineral produced and not after it is processed within the mining lease area.

After a delay of two years since the memorandum of understanding (MoU), signed between the State Government and Posco India for establishment of a steel plant near Paradip, lapsed in June 2010, pro