The Hindu Business Line : NMDC research finds commercial scope for kimberlite

DID you know that to scoop up two grams (10 carats) of precious diamonds, nearly 100 tonnes of kimberlite (the rock containing diamonds) need to be dug up?

While the diamonds fetch a handsome price, the scooped up kimberlite rock, after recovery of diamonds, piles up at mine sites as waste and later emerges as an environmental problem.

In India's best-known diamond mines in Panna, near Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, about 6-7 million tonnes of `kimberlite tailings' have accumulated since the mines' inception in the early 1970s.

Every year, about 0.9 mt are added to the existing stock of these wastes. The Panna Diamond Mines are the only ones in the country producing diamonds and are operated by the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).

Through the development of open cast mines, the NMDC produces 84,000 carats or 16,800 gm per annum from Panna. What has the organisation done with the kimberlite tailings? NDMC's Research and Development Centre in Hyderabad has carried out extensive studies on the utilisation of the tailings and has found value-added products, which have commercial scope.

Some of these include bricks, tiles, materials for the removal of fluoride from water, fluffy silica, caustic magnesia, zeolite-A and sodium silicate. The centre has demonstrated the applications of these materials, said Mr B. Ramesh Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of NMDC.

The adsorbent developed from the kimberlite tailings has been demonstrated to remove fluoride from water in a village in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. NMDC is firming up plans to aggressively market these technologies, Mr Kumar said.

Hollow bricks and building bricks made from kimberlite tailings have been tested by the National Council for Cement and Building Materials in Hyderabad.

The waste material used for making ceramic, glazed, mosaic and cold-bonded tiles have been tested by Kera Sinter Ltd. NMDC has established the capacity to supply kimberlite tailings and the know-how for making value-added products for entrepreneurs.

It is inviting expressions of interest for commercial use. Interested entrepreneurs will be offered technologies and kimberlite tailings on mutually agreeable terms, said Mr Suresh Chandra, General Manager of the R&D centre.

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