Pre-2007 mined ore in Goa belongs to State: SC

CNBC TV18, NEW DELH | 14 October 2014 19:31 IST

Reaffirming its earlier order, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday said that iron ore mined in Goa before 2007 belongs to the state, but only relates to inventory.

A Goa based miner named Bandekar Brothers had moved the SC, seeking directions to export and sell pre-2007 iron ore, however, SC has dismissed that plea. 

Though this petition is a representative of the concerns that various miners have and in that light it assumed certain degree of significance.

But the SC has reiterated its earlier position saying that it is the monitoring committee that will take charge and auction off the concerned iron ore.

Reacting to order, honorary secretary Ambar Timblo said that today's SC order is same as observation made earlier.

According to him, only inventorised cargo of nearly 15.2MT will be impacted by this move.

Shares of  Sesa Sterlite saw sharp cuts reacting to this development.

At 11:18 hrs the stock  was quoting at Rs 236.00, down Rs 14.25, or 5.69 percent.

Sesa is India's top private iron ore mining company with most of its operations in Goa, which is the biggest iron ore exporting state.

"This development will hamper the opening up of Goa mining. The current scenario is anyway not that good for the company because iron ore prices in the international market have corrected. The company may not be in a postion to start mining," Giriraj Daga, Sr Research Analyst, Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities said.

"The company was mining about 10MT prior to 2007. Iron ore prices were at around USD 75-80/tonne. So, a penalty might be likely," he added.

Meanwhile, Timblo doesn't expect any financial penalty on mining companies.

"The SC judgement has categorically said that from the sale proceeds of this 15.2 million tonnes, the first recipients will actually be the mining companies’ costs incurred in producing that material. So once the ore is sold it is the mining companies that get reimbursed for their costs first. After that cost is incurred then if any labour is not being paid they get paid after that, if anything else remains after that entire process that remains with the state," he added.

The Supreme Court had in April lifted the mining ban in Goa but imposed an annual cap of 20 million tonnes on the industry.

On October 1, the government of Goa released its mining policy framework with the intention to resume mining and grant leases "subject to compliance with the conditions which may be laid down by the state government including for strict pollution control measures."

Original Report


goanews.com is now on Telegram & also Youtube. Kindly subscribe for free & remain updated.


Drop a comment

Enter The Code Displayed hereRefresh Image


Previous Comments

AAP should protest against restarting Mining. AAP should allow Mining to restart in 2 conditions. (1) After looted Mining amount is recovered and (2) Mining share to all Goans, irrespective of involved or not involved in the Mining sector.

- Mathew Dias, Goa | 14 th October 2014 19:57

 

Latest News

Mining

Desktop Site