SAIL seeks final iron ore mine approvals from PMG

SAIL has knocked at the doors of the Prime Minister's Project Monitoring Group, set up to expedite approvals of stalled infrastructure proposals, seeking final forest and environment clearances for mining and capacity expansion at the Gua iron ore mines in Jharkhand.

"We have approached them (the PMG) as stage-II (final) forest clearance is pending. I hope it will soon be taken up," SAIL Chairman CS Verma said.

Mining at Gua and its expansion are integral to boosting SAIL's hot metal capacity -- the benchmark for steel output -- to 21 million tonnes per annum by March 2014. With the increase in steel production capacity, SAIL's iron ore needs will almost double to 39 MTPA.

The largest domestic steel producer plans to ramp up the capacity of the Gua mines to 10 MTPA from 2.4 MTPA at an investment of about Rs 3,000 crore. The plan includes setting up a 12.5 MTPA beneficiation plant and a 4 MTPA pellet plant.

SAIL meets all its iron ore requirements from captive mines. The Gua mines alone will provide 25% of SAIL's iron ore needs. It is investing over Rs 10,000 crore to expand the capacities of all its captive mines.

Verma said a decision on the Gua project was delayed due to a bio-diversity plan for the Saranda forest zone, which is under preparation.

Mining at Gua, which consists of four leases, had started in 1919 for IISCO's Burnpur plant. SAIL became the operator after merging IISCO with itself in 2006.

The mining stopped in June 2011 as approvals expired and resumed in April 2013 after a temporary work permit granted by the Ministry of Environment ~~amp;amp; Forests (MoEF).

Stage-I, or in-principle forest clearance, has been given to three of the four leases - Durgaiburu, Jhillingburu-II and Topailore - while Jhillingburu-I is closed and its application has been pending with the MoEF since July 2011.

Environment approval has been granted for the Durgaiburu lease and the planned beneficiation and pellet plants.

In April 2013, SAIL secured "consent to operate" from the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board for mining at the Gua mines, which paved the way for resuming mining activities there almost after two years.

The 4 MTPA iron ore pellet plant, proposed to be set up in the Gua mines, will be SAIL's first captive pellet plant. The company also has plans to use 2.5 MTPA iron ore fines from the 40 MTPA dumps for its beneficiation plant.