Ministry working on atomic minerals mining policy

ODISHA COAST CAN BE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

With innovations galore, the coast of Odisha can become a centre of excellence. Believe it or not, this was opined by C Swamydas, one of the founder members of Indian Rare Earth Limited. He is hopeful that one day, there will be flurry of downstream industries in the coastal region of Odisha once the Government permits private players to enter to the rare earth materials.

Because of their unique magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties, these elements help make many technologies perform with reduced weight, emissions, and energy consumption, and give them greater efficiency, performance, miniaturisation, speed, durability, and thermal stability.

Rare earth-enabled products and technologies help to fuel global economic growth, maintain high standards of living, and save lives.

“Odisha has a good amount of rare earth availability in its beaches. A policy of rare earth mining to the private as well as public sector can create huge impact in the field of innovation, employment and revenue generation. Being a very capital intensive business, the sector can bring in more and more investments in the field of innovation,” said Swamydas.

Rare earth elements are used extensively in the industries like aerospace and defence, healthcare, clean energy, electronics, transportation and vehicles, chemicals, oil refining and manufacturing.  While rare earth elements are used for lasers and resolution technologies, these technologies are critical to modern aerospace systems. Rare earth permanent magnets have facilitated an evolution in health and medical technology such as MRIs that enable doctors to diagnose illnesses that otherwise would be much harder to detect. Yttrium is used in solid state lasers and in cancer-treating drugs. Rare earth elements are used in many advanced energy technologies, including wind turbines, electric car batteries and energy-efficient lights, CFLs and LED lighting. These rare earth elements make color displays more vivid in televisions, computer screens, and other devices. They are also vital for in-ear headphones, microphones, loudspeakers, optical fibers, smartphones, and tablet computers.

The utility of the rare earth has become so vital in modern days, the planned mining of rare earth in Odisha coast would give impetus to State’s economy in terms of investment, employment and innovation, Swamydas added. He feels that the Government should come out with a policy of leasing out the simple mining process to the private and public sector units which would promote downstream industry in the area.

Courtesy : http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/odisha-coast-can-be-centre-of-excellence.html

New rules for atomic minerals in the offing

VV Mineral urges government to remove some HMS from India’s MMDR Act

By Liz Gyekye

Published: Tuesday, 24 November 2015

India’s Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act (MMDR), 2015 came into force earlier this year. Heavy mineral sands, such as ilmenite and zircon, are included in this act under the atomic minerals list. Yet, India’s largest producer of these minerals is calling on the Indian government to remove them from the atomic minerals list to encourage foreign direct investment.

India ­based heavy mineral sands (HMS) giant and member of India’s beach minerals trade association VV Mineral Ltd has urged the country’s government to exclude some minerals from the atomic minerals list in the MMDR Act, in order to attract foreign direct investment and create new jobs.

VV Mineral managing director, S Vailundarajan, told IM, that HMS such as ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene and zircon, used in applications including ceramics and pigments, are not used in atomic energy production or research and India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) delisted them from a list of prescribed substances in 2007.

However, Vailundarajan said the Indian government had not delisted the HMS from the MMDR Act, which was unveiled in March 2015.

The atomic mineral list in the MMDR Act is given in “Part­B of Schedule 1” of the MMDR Act. It contains zirconiumbearing mineral ores including zircon and titanium bearing minerals and ores, which include ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene.

Zirconium obtained from zircon and is primarily used in nuclear reactors due to its resistance to corrosion and low absorption cross­section for thermal neutrons, according to the Indian government’s national mineral policy. In contrast, monazite is the primary source of thorium for the third stage of India’s nuclear programme.

No foreign direct investment is allowed in relation to atomic minerals, Vailundarajan told IM, adding: “If these are delisted from atomic minerals, there is no need to get permission from government of India for foreign direct investment.”

“Moreover, foreign companies are allowed for non­atomic mineral mining. At present, no foreign company is permitted to invest atomic minerals, only Indian companies permitted under the policy on beach minerals notified by government of India during 1998 [are allowed],” he explained.

He said if HMS such as zircon and ilmenite were removed from the MMDR Act then states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha — mineral sand states — could see forex earnings to the sum of around $1.8bn.

In a joint letter, signed by VV Mineral and other Indian HMS producers, sent to India’s Minister for Mines, Shastri Bhawan, the companies urged the government to “harvest the fullest fruit” in terms of the MMDR Act to encourage foreign direct investment.

Another issue raised was that of monazite, which contains 0.35% uranium and 6­10% thorium.

“We urged the government to allow HMS producers to process monazite, with essential control exercised by the DAE and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. The industry can give the uranium and thorium to government and sell the rare earths, which generate employment and forex,” Vaikundarajan said.

Courtesy : http://www.indmin.com/Article/3508844/VV-Mineral-urges-government-to-remove-some-HMS-from-Indias-MMDR-Act.html

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Posted at: Nov 10 2015 12:36AMBIZ TALK

Heavy minerals industry needs greater attention, says expert

V Subramanian Director, VV Mineral talks to Girja Shankar Kaura

 
V Subramanian Director, VV Mineral talks to Girja Shankar Kaura

VV Mineral is the third largest company in the world with the capacity and technology to do beach minerals mining from extraction to value addition of TiO2. It is also the leading supplier of HMM and TiO2 to major foreign companies with advanced technical credentials. V Subramanian, director, VV Mineral, talks about heavy minerals market in India.

Q.  Give us a brief overview of the heavy minerals market in India? What is the quantum of deposits found in India and where?

A.  Heavy minerals are set of minerals containing garnet, ilmenite, zircon, rutile, silimanite, leucoxene and monazite. Garnet, though is the most eco-friendly abrasive, it is only used in overseas countries for awareness of this mineral is less in India. Worldwide, the market size is around 1.2 million tonne and almost 7,00,000 tonne is produced by India.

Ilmenite and rutile is used as a titanium feedstock. Though India has around 40% of world’s total reserve, production contribution is harldy 5% of the total world market. There are various bottlenecks, why these minerals are consumed within India, largely contributed by unfriendly investment climate prevailing in India.

Zircon and rutile are also consumed at 100,000 tonnes and 60,000 tonnes, respectively, where more than 60% is still imported in India.

Most of these minerals are largely found in coastline of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and a little in Orissa.

Q. Why is the heavy minerals sector still a nascent industry? What are the major policy bottlenecks that have led this industry to grow at a lethargic pace?

A. Though India is home to 40% of the world’s reserve (in certain heavy minerals), our production contribution is very minimal (maximum of 5% in ilmenite). There are various reasons. It starts with mining lease approval process, where 26 different Government departments (both Central and State) should concur before we could start mining. This process easily could take 7-8 years

Q. What is the value of export of heavy minerals and related value-added products (from sand beach mining) from India?

A. Beach sand industry generates forex to the tune of Rs 3,500-4,000 crore each year.

Q. What is your annual output of heavy minerals each year in India?

A. Garnet — 750,000 tonne per year, ilmenite — 1.1 million tonne (11 lakh tonne), zircon – 50,000 tonne per year, rutile – 35,000 tonne per year and silimanite – 60,000 tonne per year.

Q.What are the major applications of heavy minerals? How can future demand be met?

A. Garnet is widely used as the preferred eco-friendly abrasive for surface preparation, before corrosion resistance coating is applied. Ilmenite and rutile are used to extract titanium dioxide pigment. These minerals are also used in making welding electrodes.

Zircon is used in refractory industry as it has higher melting point and also largely used in ceramics industry as a pacifier. Silimanite is also used in alumina-based refractory industry.

Q. How do you see the current scenario on the export of titanium in India?

A. India is importing almost 1.5 lakh tonne of Tio2 pigment (titanium dioxide) for our production is less compared to actual consumption (200,000 tonne). In fact, this consumption could actually grow 5-10 times considering we are hardly consuming 400 gm per head of population and where in US it is 4 kg per head.

Courtesy : http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/business/heavy-minerals-industry-needs-greater-attention-says-expert/156513.html

Beach sand mining to come under ‘Make in India’

Saturday 22 August 2015 12:03 PM IST

byThomas Dominique

New Delhi: Black-sand mining in Kollam could be included under the central government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. The move is based on a project plan submitted by the state government to develop value-added mineral-soil industries in the Chavara coast. The state would have to ensure availability of mineral soil and cooperation from people and local organisations in the area.

The state government has proposed plans to enhance current production levels and make the industry more productive. It is not averse to the idea that mining be entrusted with the public sector completely, while product diversification and value enhancement be entrusted to the private sector.

It was decided to include the project under the ‘Make in India’ initiative following discussions made by ministers Shibu Baby John and N K Premachandran with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The project would go ahead only after considering the interests and opinion of the people in the area.

The central government is interested in the project because of positive inputs from studies conducted by the central atomic department that has hinted at immense possibilities using sand mined from Chavara. The mineral sands in the area are composed of more than 60 per cent Ilmenite, which works out to a total of about eight crore tonnes having a market value of about Rs1.42 lakh crore. The 76 lakh tonnes of Rutile deposits is worth about Rs1.12 lakh crore and the 1.27 crore tonnes of Zircon is worth about Rs1.80 lakh crores. In the Chavara beach alone, the worth of rare minerals is about 4.52 lakh crore.

Currently, Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) and Kerala Minerals and Metals are not able to conduct mining operations effectively in the region. If production is ramped up to five lakh tonnes a year, value-added industries would have bigger scope. The IREL factory in Chavara produces two lakh tonnes of Ilmenite, which is 15-20 per cent of capacity.

Uses of mineral sand

Q grade Ilmenite, which is considered to have the highest quality and purity, is abundant in Chavara. When Ilmenite production is increased, import of Titanium Dioxide can be reduced. The by-product, Iron Oxide, can be used in the steel industry.

While the requirement of Titanium dioxide is two lakh tonnes in the nation per year, its production is a mere 40,000 tonnes as of now. If sufficient quantities are made available, about Rs 4,000 crore can be saved each year.

Rate metal Titanium can be produced from ‘Q’ grade Ilmenite. The metal, which is many times stronger than steel, is most used in aerospace industries. Production of about 50,000 tonnes per year is optimum.

The Tsunami had destroyed the industry. After the Tsunami struck, the percentage of dense metals in the beach dropped to 24 per cent from 54 per cent. IREL could no more depend on beach mining exclusively for its needs.

The challenge now is lack of land and since leasing land is difficult, authorities might have to purchase land. Considering density of population and land prices, a master plan that takes into consideration the social and economic interests of the society has to be evolved to take the initiative ahead.

Link :

http://english.manoramaonline.com/news/nation/beach-sand-mining-under-make-in-india.html

Under new mining law, the cost of production will increase for companies SAIL, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite. (Reuters)

Courtesy : http://www.financialexpress.com/article/companies/new-mining-law-comes-at-a-cost-for-companies/55911/