High steel prices make Goa a mining hub

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Apr 2008

Here is a consequence of rising global steel prices that has made even the bad quality of iron ore in India as precious as gold: tourism hotspot Goa, more known for its clean sand beaches on the edge and the verdant greens on the inside, is turning into a red-iron ore mining zone.  More than 70 mining leases have been given environmental clearances in less than 2 years to mines covering 66.9 sq km of the state's forested areas in the hills have been leading to a crisis in the state.
Though Goa has been well known since the time of the Portuguese for its iron ore deposits and some of the well known Goa-based football clubs are run by mining giants of the state but the spurt in global demand, especially fed by the Chinese consumption levels, has begun to turn the state red with iron ore mines.
The clearances to the leases have now become subject to the decision of the Supreme Court in an ongoing case. In addition, different local groups and villages have gone to the Bombay High Court against the problems caused by unregulated mining.
A mapping exercise carried out by NGO Goa Foundation, also the litigant in the apex court case, found that several of these mines are operating within one km of wildlife sanctuaries in the state in contravention of the Supreme Court orders. One mine was found to be operating in the heart of a wildlife sanctuary and work has been stayed on the orders of an apex court committee.
Several others are operating within 3 km of the wildlife reserves in the Goanese portion of the Western Ghats — a global biodiversity hotspot.
"Under SC orders, the state was forced to assess these mines for their environmental clearances. It ended up clearing all of them," said Claude Alvares, director of Goa Foundation and member of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Waste. Goa has become the biggest exporter of iron ore in India, providing 60% of the exported low-grade ore from India.
"The shipping costs are lower and the low grade ore is allowed to be exported, so Goa has become a favoured export hub of iron ore," Alvares pointed out.
In 1971, Goa was exporting 10 million tonnes of ore, today it exports 33 million tonnes. For each tonne of low-grade iron ore excavated three tonnes of mud and waste is generated which is dumped out, the report mentions. With not a penny being spent by the state or the Centre in restoration of the mined sites, all the dumped material is flowing into vital rivers of the coastal state. The mining companies are legally expected to only pay a guarantee amount of a mere Rs 25,000 per hectare of land mined for restoration.
The Mandovi river is estimated to carry 200,000 metric tonnes of sediment from the North Goa mining belt each year, the study quotes.
"The area the size of Connaught Place has been dug in Goa up to 80 metres and the mud just thrown off," Alvares told journalists.

Source: Times Of India