Karnataka-based Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores Ltd today said it has been permitted today to resume mining immediately in the state by a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee after meeting conditions set by them.

However, the company’s production capacity has been reduced to 0.74 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) for iron ore and 0.1874 MTPA for manganese to meet the apex court fixed upper ceiling of 30 MTPA production from Karanataka, the company said in a filing to the BSE.

The company is among the first few mining lease holders in the state that have secured permission to resume mining.

The resumption of mining is going to increase iron ore availability in the state.

In July-August, 2011, the Supreme Court had banned mining in Karnataka due to environmental degradation of the areas.

Last year, the apex court had lifted ban on 18 mining leases, including Sandur Manganese’s leases, subject to certain conditions for better environmental protection.

“The company having complied with the said conditions to the satisfaction of the Monitoring Committee, constituted by the Supreme Court, has been today permitted to resume its mining operations immediately,” it said.

Sandur Manganese had a permission of producing 1.6 MTPA of iron ore and 0.6 MTPA of manganese before the ban. The company, which also has a ferro alloy plant, belongs to the royal family of Sandur, led by Murarirao Yeshwantrao Ghorpade.

According to the company, the monitoring committee has reported about the company as “the joint team (appointed by the apex court) has not found any illegality vis-a-vis the sanctioned lease boundaries.”

Besides, “the owners of the lessee company have voluntarily handed over more than 2,000 ha of forest land owned by them to the state government and which has no parallel in the state. The lessee company has an excellent track record of undertaking mining operations in accordance with the law,” it added.

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