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Our Bureau

CM okays 3 plants involving Rs 90-cr investment

Hyderabad June 13 The Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC), a State-owned entity, will consider the proposal to establish three low-grade barytes benefaction plants in collaboration with private partners as joint sector entities.

At a review meeting of the mining sector and performance of the APMDC, the State Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has approved the proposal for setting up three benefaction plants with a total investment of Rs 90 crore.

According to a statement from the Chief Minister's Office, this decision follows the huge latent potential for barytes in the Mangampeta mines, which is estimated to have about 30-35 per cent of low-grade barytes, which do not have much demand.

The Corporation already now holds about 20-lakh tonnes of low-grade barytes and is set to accumulate more low-grade stocks as production increases.

To make use of this low-grade variety, the Corporation has commissioned a benefaction study by the National Metallurgical Laboratories, Jamshedpur, and the results of the study were stated to be encouraging.

Applications

During the last three years, the corporation has received 112 applications for mining across 44,813 hectares for barytes, coal, gold, silver, heavy metals, beach sands, limestone and road metals.

Currently, the Corporation has mining lease for 15 mines spread across 459 hectares and in addition, for 12 quarry leases in 142 hectares.

The Chief Minister complimented the performance of the APMDC, which achieved the highest-ever production of about 1.63 million tonnes of barytes from Mangampeta mines. As per estimates, the sale price of barytes has shot up from Rs 763 per tonne in 2005 to Rs 1,164 per tonne, a significant increase of 54 per cent. During the last three years, barytes production was estimated at 39 tonnes.

During 2006-2007, the corporation recorded a turnover of Rs 100 crore with profit of Rs 33 crore. The State has 16 per cent share in APMDC.

More Stories on : Minerals | Andhra Pradesh

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