Tunnel excavation work of SJVN’s Naitwar Mori HEP completed

Naitwar Mori Hydro Electric Project has the potential to generate 265.5 million units of electricity every year and State of Uttarakhand will get 12% free Power as a Royalty.

A professional entrepreneur

As a pioneer and a professional entrepreneur, Shashi Kiran Shetty has redefined the Indian logistics landscape.

M-Sand as Alternative for Natural Sand

With the latest innovations in crushing technology, modern crushers can produce well-graded and high quality sand, writes Ramanan Anantharaman.

TATA Steel, SAIL and OMC gets mining lease renewal orders

Supreme Court has passed an order on May 16, 2014 banning operations in 26 mines working on second deemed lease renewal. The apex court has ordered the state government to issue proper mine lease renewal in six months. In response to the ban imposed, the state government has fast tracked the process of lease renewal to minimise disruption of mining activities and loss of royalty to the state exchequer

Realising the mining potential

Streamlining the mining process

The year that went by - in fact, the last two years - put the country?s mining sector through one of its toughest tests. The Supreme Court ban on iron ore mining in Karnataka in 2011 and in Goa in 2012, alongside the Coalgate scams and environmental restrictions severely impacted this sector, and led to a considerable dent in the growth of the CE sector during this period.

Karnataka govt may set up court to hear mining cases

Replying a question in the state legislative Assembly, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah indicated that his government would set up a fast-track court to hear illegal mining cases. Illegal mining in the state between 2006 and 2010 caused a loss of Rs 16,085 crore to the state exchequer, according to the final report of the then Karn

Mining picks up in Bellary area

In Bellary district of Karnataka, mining activities have resumed gradually after lifting off the blanket ban imposed by the Supreme Court in July 2011. As many as 13 mines (11 in forest land and two in revenue lands) listed in categories A and B have started extraction of ore after implementing reclamation and rehabilitation (R&R) plans and obtaining all the statutory clearances.

States asked to introduce rules to prevent illegal mining

In order to curb irregularities in the mining sector, the section 23C of the MMDR (Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 empowers states to frame appropriate rules. The union government asked states to introduce rules under this section to prevent illegal mining, transportation and storage of

Teri to study coal mining impact

A study would be conducted by The Energy & Resources Institute (Teri) to assess negative impact of coal mining and state expenditure on administrative machinery for approval and addressing externalities. For this purpose, a team of officials from the institute would visit Odisha. Simultaneously, the institute would also study the impact of allowing free power at varia

Firms sold 45.5 mn t ore via e-auction

Data from the Department of Mines and Geology (DMG), Karnataka shows mining firms sold 45,544,000 million tonne (mn t) iron ore out of 77,268,000 mn t earmarked for e-auction as on May 18 in the state. Of the total sale amount of Rs 10,496 crore, the DMG gets Rs 979.26 crore as royalty, Forest Department gets Rs 978.26 crore as Forest Development Tax while Rs 501.52 crore goes to Com

WBMDTCL asked to provide bank guarantee

In a letter to West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation, the union coal ministry asked the former to provide bank guarantee (BG) of Rs 1.3 crore for a coal block in West Bengal. In 2006, the coal ministry allotted the Ichhapur coal mine in the the Raniganj coalfields of West Bengal to the company for commercial use. The mine has geol

Industry bodies wants govt to avoid hike in royalty

Members of a government appointed Study Group recommended the government to avoid any hike in royalty for zinc, lead and other non-ferrous minerals as it would adversely affect the domestic mining industry. It may be recalled that the government formed this group to recommend royalty rates for these minerals. The group consists of industry bodies like Ficci, Asso

Proposed regulator to fix price of surplus coal from captive mines

A ministerial committee headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram decided to give the power to fix price for the surplus coal produced by captive mines to the proposed coal regulatory authority. Accordingly, the coal ministry would include a separate clause in the draft Coal Regulatory Authority Bill covering

House panel proposes royalty-based payment for coal miners

A Parliamentary committee headed by Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, suggested the government to mandate coal and lignite mining firms to contribute an amount equal to royalty towards a district mineral foundation (DMF). While the new mining bill mandates miners of major minerals like iron ore and bauxite to make such a contribution, the bill mandates coal and lignite mines to pay

House panel alleges irregularities in coal mines allocation

According to the observation of Parliament Standing Committee on Coal and Steel, the Indian government did not follow best practice in allocating coal mines in the past 20 years. The allocation in this period was illegal and amount to abuse of power as the government alloted it to a privileged few. It said the allocation of "huge national resources" did not gener

CAG urges state mines dept to increase revenue recovery

The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) urged the mines department of Odisha government to increase efficiency of its revenue recovery mechanism to ensure that it can recover at least the amount involved in the accepted cases. According to a recent report of the auditor, arrears of mining receipts stood at Rs 1,844.92 crore (as on March 31, 2012)