National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

not contain more than 0.1 per cent of monazite (subsequently enhanced to 0.25 per cent). Anew Atomic Energy Act was legislated in 1962, which expanded on the definition ofPrescribed Substances as substances that may be used for the production or use of atomicenergy or research into matters connected therewith and included uranium, plutonium,thorium, beryllium, deuterium, or any of their respective derivatives or compounds or anyother materials containing any of the aforesaid substances. Thereafter, in 1984, thegovernment notified the Atomic Energy (Working of Mines, Minerals and Handling ofPrescribed Substances) Rules, 1984. These rules provided that no person shall mine, mill,process, and/or handle any ore, mineral, or other material from which any one or more of thePrescribed Substances can be extracted, without obtaining a licence from the licensingauthority and except in accordance with the terms and conditions of such licence. The DAEhas since then been notifying the list of Prescribed Substances from time to time. The list ofPrescribed Substances notified in 1995 included thorium with monazite, zirconium withzircon, and titanium ores with ilmenite, rutile, and leucoxene. This left out garnet andsillimanite among the BSMs that are major (non-Scheduled) minerals under the MCDR andout of the purview of the Atomic Energy Act and rules thereunder. However, since theirtailings contain the Prescribed Substances, the separation process and disposal are regulated.7.70 According to the IPR of 1956 and the Industrial Policy Statement of 1991, the activityof mining and separating BSMs was reserved for the public sector. However, keeping in viewthe liberalisation of the economy in the early 1990s and opening up of various hithertoreserved sectors to private investment, the DAE also formulated a new policy that wasnotified in October 1998. The policy was mainly driven by the realisation that despite Indiahaving large resources of BSMs, the production to reserve ratio (PRR) is the lowest in theworld. The need for promoting a primary titanium industry was also keenly felt in view of thecountry having the largest estimated reserves of ilmenite in the world, and also on account ofthe strategic importance of the metal. The 1998 policy, therefore, permitted the entry ofwholly Indian owned companies from the private sector in each of the three activities, viz.mining, mineral separation, and value addition. FDI was permitted in pure value additionprojects (without mining and mineral separation) as well as in integrated projects comprisingmining, mineral separation, and value addition, subject to certain conditions. As a result ofthis change, some private sector entities did enter the beach sand mining industry but thescale of operations and the total number of investors were far from significant.7.71 A Conference on Beach Sand Mineral Policy organised by DAE in January 2005 forreviewing the working of the policy notified in October 1998 recommended that minerals like170