Industry leaders want rules for beach sand mining relaxed. They have also called for speedy clearances.
According to them, beach sand mining does not have adverse ecological consequences and, therefore, the industry should be allowed to extract valuable minerals such as ilmenite from such sand for use in different sectors.
The plea was made by them here on Wednesday evening at the inaugural of the ninth International Heavy Minerals Conference. The three-day conference, being held for the first time in India, was inaugurated by AP Mines Minister G. Aruna Kumari and it was attended by 60 delegates from abroad and 250 from within the country. It is being organised by the Mining Engineers' Association of India.
The minister said that “AP with a coastline of 900 km possesses 153 million tonnes of heavy mineral beach sands from Icchapuram in Srikakulam district to Nizampatnam in Guntur district, with ilmenite accounting for 116 million tonnes. The associate minerals such as garnet and sillimanite are estimated at 53 million tonnes.” Indian Rare Earths Ltd was the first to establish a processing plant for heavy minerals from beach sands. Trimex and other industries later entered the field, she said.
Aruna Kumari said the mines department in the State was formulating a new mineral policy for removing hassles and to make it easier for the entrepreneurs. “However, we expect them to be conscious of environment and there should be no danger to olive ridley turtles in the north-coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam,” she said.
T.V Chowdhary, chairman of the advisory committee, earlier spoke on behalf of the industry. He said it was becoming very difficult to obtain mining leases for extraction of minerals from beach sand and even after obtaining the lease the entrepreneurs had to wait nearly for a decade to start operations. “Even a turtle can stall the project,” he lamented. He also pleaded with the Government to allow monazite processing.
Trevor Arran, the global president of Tronox Minerals Sands, South Africa, and R.N Patra, CMD of Indian Rare Earths Ltd, were honoured on the occasion.