By: Ajoy K Das
9th August 2012
KOLKATA (mining weekly) - India recorded 47 254 cases of illegal mining between January and September last year, the government reported this week.
In 2010, the number of illegal mining cases registered were 73 115, while in 2009 it reached 41 578 cases.
“The apparent fall in the number of registered cases in 2011 compared with the previous year could be misleading since it was not result of effective deterrent but the blanket ban on mining imposed in two key mining provinces of Karnataka and Goa,” an official with regulator the Indian Bureau of Mines said.
A special task force set up by the Indian government in wake of illegal mining, that has resulted in a political storm, has so far conducted inspection of 454 mines across major mineral-rich provinces of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Goa, and has suspended 155 mining licenses. available with the Mines Ministry.
In a bid to control illegal mining, the Indian government last week amended the Mineral Concession Rules (MCR), empowering the provincial governments to cancel licenses if a person holding the lease was convicted of carrying out unauthorised mining.
“If the lessee holding the mining lease or a licensee holding a prospecting license was convicted of illegal mining and there are no interim orders of any court of law suspending the operation of the order, the state government may cancel such prospecting license and forfeit whole or part of the security deposit,” a statement issued by the Mines Ministry said.
To remove any ambiguity on what constituted ‘illegal mining’ the government has inserted a new clause in the MCR which stated that “illegal mining means any reconnaissance or prospecting or mining operation undertaken by any person or a company in any area without holding a reconnaissance permit or a prospecting license or a mining lease, as required under law”.
Meanwhile, the Indian government has extended the tenure of the Justice M B Shah Commission set up to probe cases of illegal mining until July 2013.
The mandate of the Commission was to identify cases of illegal mining, identify and rectify management, regulatory and monitoring systems and its failures in curbing illegal mining. The Commission has so far submitted two interim reports, the first of which was submitted last year and another in March 2012, and has recommended a comprehensive ban of iron-ore exports from the country.
Edited by: Esmarie Swanepoel
9th August 2012
KOLKATA (mining weekly) - India recorded 47 254 cases of illegal mining between January and September last year, the government reported this week.
In 2010, the number of illegal mining cases registered were 73 115, while in 2009 it reached 41 578 cases.
“The apparent fall in the number of registered cases in 2011 compared with the previous year could be misleading since it was not result of effective deterrent but the blanket ban on mining imposed in two key mining provinces of Karnataka and Goa,” an official with regulator the Indian Bureau of Mines said.
A special task force set up by the Indian government in wake of illegal mining, that has resulted in a political storm, has so far conducted inspection of 454 mines across major mineral-rich provinces of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Goa, and has suspended 155 mining licenses. available with the Mines Ministry.
In a bid to control illegal mining, the Indian government last week amended the Mineral Concession Rules (MCR), empowering the provincial governments to cancel licenses if a person holding the lease was convicted of carrying out unauthorised mining.
“If the lessee holding the mining lease or a licensee holding a prospecting license was convicted of illegal mining and there are no interim orders of any court of law suspending the operation of the order, the state government may cancel such prospecting license and forfeit whole or part of the security deposit,” a statement issued by the Mines Ministry said.
To remove any ambiguity on what constituted ‘illegal mining’ the government has inserted a new clause in the MCR which stated that “illegal mining means any reconnaissance or prospecting or mining operation undertaken by any person or a company in any area without holding a reconnaissance permit or a prospecting license or a mining lease, as required under law”.
Meanwhile, the Indian government has extended the tenure of the Justice M B Shah Commission set up to probe cases of illegal mining until July 2013.
The mandate of the Commission was to identify cases of illegal mining, identify and rectify management, regulatory and monitoring systems and its failures in curbing illegal mining. The Commission has so far submitted two interim reports, the first of which was submitted last year and another in March 2012, and has recommended a comprehensive ban of iron-ore exports from the country.
Edited by: Esmarie Swanepoel
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