MINES MINISTRY GRANTS 119 RECONNAISSANCE
PERMITS
Union Ministry of
Mines has granted 46 reconnaissance permits covering an area of
over 68300 sq. kilometers during April-December 2002-03. Following
the amendment of the Mines & Minerals (Development and Regulation)
Act, 1957, reconnaissance permit in 119 cases involving an area
of over 155,000 sq. kilometers have been granted by the Ministry.
The policy changes have attracted private investments in exploration.
This information appears in the 2002-03 annual report of the Ministry
of Mines.
The report says that
the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002
notified in January 2003, provides for development and regulation
of mineral resources in the territorial waters, continental shelf,
and the exclusive economic zone. The legislation will help streamline
mineral exploration and development in the offshore areas and
ensure systematic and scientific exploitation of mineral reserves
for attracting private investment in the mineral sector excluding
petroleum, natural gas and hydrocarbon resources.
The Mineral Advisory
Council met in September 2002 and discussed issues pertaining
Mineral Policy and Legislation, United Nations Framework Clarification
(UNFC) of Indian Mineral resources, environment & forest and
illegal mining. MCR 1960 has been amended suitably in line with
the decisions taken in the meeting.
The Conference of
the State Ministers of Mining and Geology in January 2003, took
up many important issues such as mine closure and rehabilitation
of mineral areas, prescribing minimum size for mineral loss, environmental
forest clearances, involvement of Panchayats in mining approvals,
United Nations framework classification, dereserving areas reserved
for public sector undertakings and earmarking mineral revenues
for providing infrastructure.
The third stream
of alumina refinery of NALCO was commissioned and the capacity
of the refinery has increased from 10,50,000 tonnes per annum
(tpa) to 15,75,000 tpa. After expansion, NALCO becomes the largest
alumina producer in Asia with an exportable surplus of one million
tpa after meeting the internal demands of its smelter at Angul.
Regarding disinvestment
of Ministry's public sector units the report says that the Government
has taken a decision to further disinvest 30 per cent equity of
NALCO through a public offer and sale of 29.15 per cent equity
to a strategic partner brining the Government equity down to 26
per cent after reserving 2 per cent of the equity for NALCO employees.
The Government has
decided to sell its entire share in Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL)
i.e 98.95 per cent to an interested buyer. Ministry of disinvestment
is processing the case for disinvestment as per Government decision.
The Government has disinvested 26 per cent equity of HZL and the
management of the company has been transferred in April 2002 to
the strategic partner M/s Sterlite Opportunities and Ventures
Limited.
