MINES SECRETARY REVIEWS H 1 PERFORMANCE OF MECL

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The Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd. (MECL), a public sector unit of the Mines Ministry has completed 77,469 meters of drilling during the first half of this fiscal against 51,070 meters carried out during the corresponding period last year. This was achieved in spite of heavy rains that affected majority of the products. The company has achieved 1399 meters in developmental mining during this period against 1977 meters during the first half of 2002-03. The shortfall in mining was mainly due to non-availability of sufficient work, informed the CMD, MECL, Shri Rajneesh Gupta in a review meeting taken by the Secretary Mines, Shri C.D.Arha here today. Shri Gupta informed that company completed 65 square kilometers mapping against a target of 50 square kilometers, 53,409 meters GP logging against a target of 50,000 meters and 120 square kilometers GP survey against a target of 200 kilometers during these six months.

The sales of the company during the first half has been Rs. 24.74 crore as against Rs. 19.38 crore during the same period last year and the gross margin has been Rs. 1.72 crore against a negative gross margin of Rs. 4.26 crore during the same period last year. The company is trying to maintain the positive gross margin tempo through out this year and expects that the shortfall in the mining activity will be made up in coming months. The Secretary stressed on implementing VRS for reduction of manpower and asked to improve production and productivity to meet the annual targets.