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.