Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores, a Karnataka-based company has received nod to start mining immediately in the state by a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee after meeting conditions set by them. Earlier in July-August, 2011, because of environmental degradation of the areas, the Supreme Court had banned mining in Karnataka.
The company’s production capacity has been reduced to 0.74 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) for iron ore and 0.1874 MTPA for manganese to meet the apex court fixed upper ceiling of 30 MTPA production from Karnataka. The resumption of mining is going to increase iron ore availability in the state.