Centre gives in-principle approval for mining in Karnataka's Devadari Hill Range by KIOCL

MANGALURU: The Ministry of Environment and Forests has accorded stage 1 in-principle approval for diversion of 401.5761 hectares of forest land at Devadari Hill Range in Ballari district for iron ore and manganese ore mining for a period of 50 years by KIOCL Limited.

KIOCL Chairman cum Managing Director MV Subba Rao told a press meet here on Monday that the approval was given on June 24 and after fulfilling certain conditions, they will get the second and final approval. The mining activities in the new captive mine are likely to begin from the next financial year.

It is after a gap of more than 15 years that KIOCL, formerly known as Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited, is getting a captive mine. The company had to stop all its mining activities in its previous facility located in Kudremukh following a Supreme Court order passed on December 31, 2005. Several environmentalists had sought a ban on mining in Kudremukh located in the fragile Western Ghats stating that it has resulted in large-scale destruction of wildlife and deposit of heavy silt in the Bhadra river system affecting thousands of farmers.

Since then, Subba Rao said the company had been making efforts to have its captive mines. For the last 15 years, the company, which is a Government of India enterprise, was wholly dependent on private mines located within the state and outside for raw materials like iron ore and manganese for manufacturing of pellets that are used in production of steel. “There was a lot of uncertainty all these years as we had to depend on others for raw material. Now, the new captive mine provides raw material security. The quality of our products will also increase now,” he said.

The CMD said initially they will start with 0.3 million tons of mining in Devadari which will gradually go up to 2 million tons in a span of 5 years. The total expenditure of the new mining activity will be Rs 1,500 crore out of Rs 150 crore will be used for pre-mining activities. The project will generate over 1,000 direct jobs out of which 50 percent of staff will be permanent employees. In the second phase, a pellet plant will be commissioned in Devadari and until then the mine's minerals will be brought to the pellet plant in Mangaluru. There is huge demand for pellets and KIOCL is making efforts to expand the pellet market to Brazil and Middle East and North African (MENA) countries.

CMD to retire on June 30

KIOCL CMD MV Subba Rao is set to retire on June 30 after 14 years of service. A B.Tech graduate in Metallurgy from a Warangal college, he worked in the Aditya Birla Group for 15 years and in a steel plant owned by the Andhra Pradesh government before moving on to KIOCL.