From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Aug 4: Karnataka will come out with the state-level mining action plan 2030 to match the industries’ demand for iron ore shortly, Secretary, Mines Kumar Kataria, said at an ASSOCHAM event held in New Delhi today.

"Karnataka would hopefully supply that kind of ore required for the next 14-15 years," Kataria said while addressing an ASSOCHAM India Mining Summit 2017.

He also said a committee has been constituted to come out with broad policy guidelines, framework so that some kind of discipline can be brought in the minor mineral sector.

Highlighting the issues regarding process simplification and bringing in transparency are already under discussion of Ministry of Mines, he said "In the state government also, you will find some simplification of processes in the short-term."

Kataria also urged Arun Kumar, Secretary, Union Ministry of Mines, to compile a mineral database comprising size, demand and prospective plan to meet that demand.

"Both the industry and the government need to do adequate data management to carry out demand and supply assessment in the industry on the basis of which we can think of exploiting the resources," he said.

Talking about the need to promote systematic scientific mining, he said that it is an area, both policymakers and miners need to now start thinking of.

"With a view to bridge the widening gap between iron ore demand and supply, we should go for scientific mining, identify and plan well in advance so that systematic and scientific mining can take place without spoiling the environment," said Kataria.

Terming the mineral exploration in India a time-consuming process owing to use of primitive technology, he said "It is an area where both industry and the government can play a major role. Besides, we need to adopt latest technologies available internationally so that we can go for exploration, we can exploit the natural resources well in time when we need them."

As part of e-auction of mines, he said that Karnataka has had a very good experience.

"We had first round of the auction and there was very good participation. Initially for two years we had struggled, but now it has taken proper shape and now we have become model state in this regard as it had brought the required transparency in the sector which can be seen," he said.

On the low grade ore, he said that is an area which needs to be thought upon as in how to optimise available resources.

"We will ultimately go for mining, so we have to see how best we can optimise and utilise those low grade ore without wasting the resource."

Necessary permissions and clearance required both from state and central governments are also very time-consuming, he said pointing out that "I have seen few cases which have been hanging in the air for past few years. Some kind of discipline is required from both the governments’ side."

Lamenting that industries have been flouting norms knowingly, Kataria said, "When we talk about allocation of natural resources in the era of transparency one has to understand the issues clearly and strictly follow the rule of law."

Industry has to take care of the infrastructure required for mining as lack of it is impacting the ecology and otherwise, he said and contended that huge investments are required by the private and government sectors to ensure that we have adequate infrastructure in all the mining areas.

Some simplification is also required to be promoted in terms of licensing permits to control the illegal activities seen in the past decade, Kataria added.