Goemkarponn Desk
PORVORIM: In an effort to resume iron ore mining activities in the State, the Cabinet today accorded it’s nod for a policy to regularize unauthorised ore dump, lying outside lease areas in government and private land, under which auction as well as export of the mineral will be allowed.
Under the new Regularization of Dumps 2021 policy, Government will auction the ore rejects, lying outside leases, for which no payment was made by the lease holders in form of penalty or land conversation as per 2013 Dump policy.
In case of those ore, where royalty as well as penalty was paid, the lease holders, will be allowed to export the ore.
“With this, iron ore mining activities will commence in the State,” the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant said after cabinet meeting.
The government, under then CM late Manohar Parrikar, after observing that large areas of land outside mining leases were used to dump waste without any authorisation, decided to grant temporary conversion for using the land by charging a one-time fee from the mining companies.
Accordingly, a conversion fee of Rs 100 per sqm was charged and a fine at the rate of Rs 20 per sqm was to be imposed for unauthorised use of land for dumping the mining waste.
Government had earned a revenue of around Rs 250 crore in 2013-14.
CM Sawant also said that Goa Government had filed an application in the Supreme Court to allow iron ore dump mining activities in the state.
“An application for dump mining has been filed by Goa in the Supreme Court. We are hopeful of positive outcome in reviving the industry,” Sawant had said.
According to available estimates, 733.71 million tones of iron ore dumps are lying at around 300-plus geographical locations in the State.
Sawant claimed that the ore in these dumps is high-grade and exportable ore. Though many mining lease holders and operators have paid royalty to the government for dumping the rejects in government land, Sawant claimed these dumps are totally owned by the government.
Over the last year or so, the State government is desperately looking for a legal remedy to restart the mining business but the issue is caught in legal tangle in the Supreme Court.
Mining came to a standstill in Goa in March, 2018 after the Supreme Court, in February that year, quashed 88 leases and banned extraction of ore.