Monsoon brings mining to a halt
PTI, PANAJI | 11 June 2012 12:57 IST
With the onset of monsoons, the iron ore mining business in Goa has come to a standstill with only lumpy ore being transported from the sites to ports.
Industry players like Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association (GMOEA) claim that 80 per cent of the business will be down, as fines (small particle ore) cannot be laden in trucks and transported to the jetties from where it is ferried to the port by small ships.
Only few mining companies extract the lumpy ore, while rest deal with fines which are low grade, GMOEA executive secretary Swaminathan Sridhar said. Extraction and transportation of ore becomes difficult during rains due to logistic reasons, he said.
Goa is India's largest exporter of iron ore with majority of the extracted earth exported to China, which has become a booming market since 2005.
The state has 90 operational mining leases.
The clampdown on the illegal mining activity has severely dented prospects of growing exports from the state.
From a record 54 million metric tonnes of export in2010-11, before crackdown on the illegal iron ore, the exports had plummeted to 43 million metric tonnes in 2011-12.
"The indications are that the exports would further be down by 15 per cent for the current financial year," GMOEA secretary Glenn Kalavampara said, adding that the trends of exports in April-May this year were indicative of the downfall.
He said that 38 million metric tonnes mining export is projected for FY13.
"But it may be too early to predict," he added. The statistics available with the GMOEA indicate that export was around 8-9 million metric tonnes for April-May 2012, which is less in comparison to corresponding period last year.
