Goa seeks to export iron ore waste from mines.

About 750 million tonnes (mt) of overburden in Goa, resulting from indiscriminate iron ore mining, are proving to be an environmental and political headache defying easy resolution.

India’s mines ministry is considering ways to get rid of the material displaced from mines all over Goa during the 2005-2010 mining boom.

The Goa state government is formulating a new policy that may facilitate export of the mountains of iron-rich soil, officials said. But that would put it in direct confrontation with environmentalists who say it should be used to refill and restore the land it was dug out of.

Overburden is the waste earth and rock covering a mineral deposit.

The dumps in Goa are the result of more than 100 iron ore mines, many of which allegedly overproduced or violated environmental norms to cater mostly to the steel industry in China, creating an environmental hazard at home in the process.

Mining officials and environmental activists both agree the mammoth dumps have been trickling into the rivers and the sea, leading to pollution spreading, as most of the material is not preserved in accordance with the norms that prevent erosion.

A mines ministry official said export and pelletization were among the alternatives discussed at a meeting with the Indian Bureau of Mines last week. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Union mines secretary Vishwapati Trivedi declined to comment on the issue. There was no response to phone calls and questions sent by text message.

Indian Bureau of Mines controller general C.S. Gundewar, whose agency inspects mines to ensure regulations are followed, said the meeting was the annual one with the mines ministry and illegal mining had not been on the agenda.

Goa’s government is working on a new mining policy to be announced in 15 days that will specify the policy on the dumps, the state director of mines and geology Prasanna Acharya told Mint.

The state may be inclined toward exports as the material will have buyers in China. Most of the iron ore produced in Goa is low grade, containing below 52% iron and in powdery form, which finds a market only in China that has the technology to blend it with high-grade Australian and Brazilian iron ores to keep steel costs down.

Indian steelmakers use high-grade lumpy ores from mines in east and south India. They say Goa’s ores, even if upgraded, won’t suit their plants.

“If there is value for the dumps, why should it not be sold?” Acharya said. “After all, the mining policy of the nation espouses ‘zero-waste’ mining.” 

Details such as the grade of the dumps and how much is exportable are being worked out and a reassessment of their volume will be made after the state mining policy is declared, Acharya said. Dumps that have iron content of 45% and above will find takers in China, while the rest would be “waste” that could be used to refill the mining sites, Acharya said.

But Claude Alvares, director of the Goa Foundation, fighting several environmental cases against miners in the high court of Mumbai in Goa, pointed out that India’s mining policy stipulates that mines have to be closed after the ore is taken out and dumps restored.

Exporting the material may verge on legitimising wrongdoing.

“How are you going to make money from dumps obtained from illegal mining? Many of them are in the forest areas. Whose property are they and who gives them permission to export them?” Alvares said. “We will oppose it.” 

Goa Foundation’s main contention is that the mines have lowered the water table and, being so close to the sea, pose a significant environmental danger. Besides, most of Goa’s mines are empty of high-grade ore, which means the iron ore to soil ratio is 1:3 , or to extract one tonne of iron ore three tonnes of soil has to be displaced.

Currently there are 41 mines producing iron ore in Goa. Last year 48 iron ore mines were shut down in the state because of their environmental impact and their cases are being heard by the Goa Pollution Control Board, says Acharya.

For the Goa government, exports could be an attractive revenue source. Goa earned Rs.938 crore in mining royalties in 2011-12, almost equivalent to its revenue from tourism.

Given the opposition of environmental groups, the issue is unlikely to be resolved quickly. If the decision is eventually made to export the overburden, the market may have changed by then. China’s demand is slowing, said Helen Liu, senior market analyst at Umetal Research Centre, a Beijing-based information provider on metals.

“The Chinese iron ore market has been very low in recent months, and iron ore import from Goa to China has been decreasing also, mostly due to the export ban in India (in Karnataka),” Liu said. “Iron ore export from Goa in FY2011/12 was 43mt, and we forecast it will decrease by 15% in FY 2012/13 to less than 40mt.”

Source : videos.livemint.com