National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

mine, reduce dust generation and air pollution during the mining operations, and controlwater contamination and pollution. The mining majors have set up the International Councilfor Mining and Metals (ICMM) which is an arm’s length body for researching, settingstandards, and monitoring sustainable development in the mining sector in close associationwith the World Conservation Union (WCU).IMPACT OF CAPTIVE MINING ON THE SME SECTOR7.40 It will be seen from Table 7.3 that 75.45 per cent of India’s 142.71 million tonnes ofiron ore was produced in the non-captive private sector. Of this, the 11 large miners(Annexure 11) produced 50 million tonnes, implying that as much as 57.7 million tonnescame from the SME sector. Of this, 41.5 million tonnes or 72 per cent was produced in thewestern states of Goa and Karnataka. The entire SME mining sector is in the non-captivemining segment and any policy reserving iron ore deposits for captive miners will have animmediate and destabilising effect on SME mining. Admittedly, SME mining is not efficientin terms of any of the parameters, viz. exploration, efficiency of use, technology,infrastructure, and environment. However, the SME sector has emerged, primarily in thesouth-western part of India, comprising Karnataka and Goa, for the reasons outlined below.7.41 First, the possibility of many more large integrated steel plants coming up in thesouth-western region is limited mainly because of inadequate availability of power and water.Movement of iron ore to the steel plants in eastern and central India is not attractive becausethe long haul makes the operation economically unviable. As a result, small sponge/pigiron/pellet plants in the SME sector are being established. These industries cannot beexpected to invest in and operate captive mines on any significant scale but instead rely onsupplies from the SME miners. Secondly, there are a large number of small deposits in theregion that are too small to be mined by captive miners. If stand alone SME miners are notallowed to exploit these deposits they would remain unexploited. For these reasons captivemining cannot be prioritised in the south-western region. Jindal Steel Works (JSW) is theonly major steel plant in the region and it proposes to increase its steel making capacity from3.8 million tonnes to 7 million tonnes per annum by 2009–10. The company was earlierpurchasing iron ore from the NMDC at formula based rates but is now purchasing ore atmarket rates. Although this has not affected its profits the company seeks a level playing fieldwith other captive miners.157