Supreme Court permits iron ore mining in Goa with annual cap of 20 million tonnes

The Supreme Court has lifted an 18-month-old ban on iron ore mining in Goa and allowed industry to extract Iron ore with an annual cap of 20 million tonnes. However, the expert panel will give a final recommendation on annual cap on excavation of iron ore within six months. In addition to the lifting of the court’s ban, mining requires the approvals from the environment ministry and Goa state government.

The Supreme Court notified there cannot be a deemed renewal of lease after 2007 of the existing lease deeds emanating from 1962 onwards. Further, there will be no grant of lease for mining around one km of national parks and wild life sanctuaries and directed the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to identify eco-sensitive areas around national parks within six months. Supreme Court added that the government of Goa, India’s top exporting state of the raw ingredient for steel, will formulate a scheme within six months for utilising the funds generated by e-auction. Moreover, the workers on rolls of all mining firms will be paid 50 percent of the wage during the period for which they were out of work.

Mining activities in Goa came to a grinding halt since the Supreme Court imposed mining ban in this region. Prior to the ban, Goa exported over 40 million tonnes of iron ore per year, accounting for about 70% of India's total iron ore exports. During the April-February 2014 period, India exported 14.01 million tonnes of iron ore compared to 17.36 million tonnes in the year-ago period, showing a decline of 19.3%. Low domestic production and sluggish demand from China were the leading factors that attributed to decline in shipments. The latest move also came in as a major relief to Indian steel industry facing huge shortage of iron ore, however prevailing slump in prices and slackening demand in China reflect that the period of high profits for iron ore industry is over.